Pastures Past: Hay barn tax concessions and beef prices in 1974

The 1974 Budget provided tax concessions on haybarns and grain silos for farmers. Photo / Ross Setford

Kem Ormond takes a look at the world of farming back in the day.

Today she’s found another agricultural supplement published by the Wanganui Chronicle in the 70s.

You never know what can be found when you clean up an unused office.

Just recently a large selection of Farm Review and Forecast farming supplements produced by the Wanganui Chronicle has been found at the back of a cupboard.

Dating back to 1974, it makes for an interesting read and may remind you of what farming was like back then.

This was the Kirk/Rowling era, and in 1974 the Labour Party was the government of the day.

The 1974 budget helps farmers

To encourage farmers to build storage for winter feed the Government is to provide aid.

The 1974 Budget provides tax concessions on haybarns and grain silos for farmers.

With the extremes in weather that has prevailed over recent years this measure will hopefully alleviate feed shortages in the future.

The subsidy on grain silos is $3.08 per cubic metre and the subsidy on haybarns is 8c per bale capacity with a maximum of $320 in one year.

The first year is from June 1, 1974, to May 31, 1975.

The building must be of a permanent nature, built of approved building materials and conform to existing local by-laws.

The haybarns may be of gable lean-to or half-round construction.

Claim forms are available from the Dept Agriculture and Fisheries.

Outlook for meat exports

In his address to the midyear meeting of the electoral committee of the New Zealand Meat and Wool Board’s electoral committee, Mr Charles Hilgendorf, Chairman of the Meat Board, reminded delegates that at the committee’s meeting in March, he had sounded a warning note about the prices of beef.

He drew attention to the strong upward trend in cattle numbers in the main producing and consuming countries.

“I must concede that I did not expect prices to slide so far and so fast,” Mr Hilgendorf said at the committee meeting on August 22.

“Factors such as the effect of the oil crisis on countries, balance of payments and consumer demand proved more significant than had been envisaged.

“Hence, the somewhat hostile criticism of the board by some farmers for not warning them of the falling prices was understandable, if not in my view, justified “.

Other than add further congestion in freezing works, it is not clear what farmers would have done had we been able to tell them how much prices were going to fall.

However, the board’s view on price forecasting have been conveyed at some length in papers circulated to committee members and it would be wearisome to repeat the arguments.

Prospects

Beef: While lamb prices have fallen most of the problems of recent months have centred on beef. The current problems are likely to for some time.

Lamb: Prices have been reasonably satisfactory, especially early in the season in spite of greatly reduced production. Stocks in the United Kingdom are somewhat higher than we would like but should reduce more quickly than we had envisaged because of the continued sales of lamb to the Middle East.

Mutton: Mutton prospects remain more unpredictable than ever.

Undoubtedly the sale to Russia took an enormous burden off our shoulders this season, but it is quite impossible to say whether this will be repeated next year.

Much will depend on developments in Japan and the rate of growth in the Japanese economy.