§ Colonel J. R. H. Hutchisonasked the Minister of Agriculture what is the total quantity of animal feedingstuffs expected to be available to farmers in 1949 compared with 1948 and 1938.
Mr. T. WilliamsThe total quantities of feedingstuffs available to farmers, including grass, hay and roughages, cannot be estimated accurately. Rationed feedingstuffs available in the rationing year ended 30th September, 1948, amounted to 3.6 million tons, and in the rationing year ending 30th September, 1949, are expected to amount to 4.5 million tons. No corresponding figures are available for pre-war years. In the agricultural year ending 31st May, 1949, total supplies of concentrates (cereals, oilcakes, fishmeal, etc.) both rationed and unrationed, are expected to be of the order of 8 million tons, compared with approximately 11–12 million tons in 1938–39. All these figures include agricultural holdings under one acre and backyard production.