Pastures past: Where have all the lambs and wool gone?

The sheep farmers reward: Lorries laden with heavy bales of wool grown on one of the large stations in the Tokomaru Bay district. Photo / NZ Herald 1952

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

A clean-up in one of the back rooms at the Whanganui Chronicle has revealed some agricultural supplements dating back to the 70s.

They are an interesting read, covering over 50 years of farming.

They also highlight where farming was headed back then and what was predicted for the future.

Agricultural review, 1974 Wanganui Chronicle

New Zealand now had about five million more sheep than in 1964-65 but the volume of wool and the number of export lambs sold was not much different, said Mr N W Taylor Chief Economist of the Meat and Wool Board’s economic service.

Mr Taylor was speaking at the Farm Management Society section at the Institute of Agricultural Science convention in Canterbury.

The lambing percentage and wool clip per head had fallen from 1966-67 onwards he said.

Many sheep in the national flock may be smaller framed and of lower liveweight then in earlier years and it would be sometime before this situation could be rectified.

Mr Taylor produced figures showing that while sheep numbers were 56.684m at the beginning of the 1973-74 season, compared with 51.292m in 1964-65, wool production last season was 285,000 tonnes, compared with 280,000 tonnes in 1964-65.

Export lamb production was 271,000 tonnes compared with 284,000 tonnes.

The level of wool production per sheep last season, he said, was the lowest since the second world war.

The average clip per head last season was 5.03 kilograms, but production was expected to rise 7 to 10 per cent in the coming year.

Although climatic conditions had been partly responsible for the decline in performance, Mr Taylor said, it had not been possible to sort out the real influence of the drought.

Let the farmer run his own industry

By Donald Macnab, Wanganui Provincial President of Federated Farmers

Could one find a better starting point in this year’s Agricultural Review than to reflect how, just a few short weeks ago, Mr W D Dunlop, the immediate past president of Federated Farmers, drew the country’s attention to the position the farmer saw himself in today.

He suggested that the feeling of being treated as “simple suckers “’ was in part the reason farm production is declining.

We see a government unsympathetic to the basic fundamental courtesy of consultation in matters of legislation and concerning farmers’ vital interests.

The speed with which the economic tide can flow against New Zealand has come as a shock to many commercial interests.

Where have all the lambs gone?

Farming inevitably feels the first icy blasts of a recession, this time coupled with galloping inflation.

Is it any wonder that primary producers feel disgusted with the running down of the country’s overseas reserves in just a few short months?

The farmer will play his full part in the difficult times which undoubtedly lie ahead, provided either administration, Labour or National, will allow him to follow his chosen profession in dignity and respect- that is respect for the capital and expertise he can offer to New Zealand’s standard of living.