BREAKING IN HILL COUNTRY

Bay of Plenty Times, Volume LXXVI, Issue 14713, 3 July 1948, Page 4

BREAKING IN HILL COUNTRY

SCRUB CLEARED WITH.

GIANT DISCS

Valuable Sticep Eun At Low Cost

Timbered Gullies Give Stock Shelter

Use of giant discs are considered by Mr David Ritchie, a Waipawa hill-country farmer, to offer, in these days of labour shortages and increasingly high costs, an important factor in the economic regrassing of deteriorating hill pasture, and in bringing much poor land into worthwhile .production. Mr Ritchie gave his own experience with giant discs in a paper which he read to the East coast sheepfarmers' conference at a recent session.

Before tractors were in general use, much second-class and scrubcovered land had never been fully developed, said Mr Ritchie. Topdressing hill pasture had not bocome an established practice, and the necessary power and implements to bring in this poorer ground economically was not available to the great majoritv of farmers. In many instances the scrub was cut and burned and grass surface-sown, but the better grasses did not thrive, and after about 20 years the areas bad reverted very much to their original state. Sometimes this was not of great concern to the farmer. Probably he had enough good land to provide, and the cost of recutting and sowing again did not seem warranted when balanced against -the poor stock carrying capacity of the country when cleared. Significance i o Britain "But now when much of the good hill country is not as good as it was, and noor land, for manv reasons is going out of production altogether, the potential carrying capacity of undeveloped lands, if thev can be brought in economically, is of great significance not only to the farmer, but to the Dominion and to Britain.

Mr Ritchie proceeded to give the gathering his experience on th n land he is farming, which is oart, of the old Blackhead Station. 20 miles south-east of Waipukurau. five miles from the sea and nt an elevation of 600 to 800 reel. The avera.ee rainfall is 45 inches, threeauarters of which falls between March and August. Much of the pocr countrv carries second-growth scrub and brownton and red rushes predominate in the sward. Prior to the war 200 to 300 acres of easy country wh>h had bee-' ploughed in the early da.vs and cleared of scrub, had been ploughed up and laid down again. Pastures have been maintained by moledraining and toodressing, and this country is now the backbone of the place, lambing three ewes to the acre. This encouraged an attempt to bring in with giant discs areas of apparently similar formation, but which had. never been ploughed, and were perhaps 80 to 90 ner cent. manuka-scrub covered. Thi = had been cut in 1927 but in places it was again 10ft tn 12ft high, with an average height of 6ft or 7ft. "Derails of Equipment

Apart from the tractor, which is a 25 h.p. diesel with a wide gauge on IGin shoes, giant discs with five aside 24in unscallopod blades weighted with a 3cwt. concrete strainer pest, and heavv chain harrows, costing together £llO, are the only two implements used which are not normally found on a hill farm where some cropping is done.

Initially, the sanw method has always been used, Mr Ritchie continued. A double cut is Riven in the spring and summer with gian+ discs and the scrub is burnt off about, three weeks later, when it still holds its leaf. Gord hot fires, which clean up most of the sticks have been the result. Subsequent work has depended on how the ground is to be used. Of three methods so far used, the one which Mr Ritchie has found best is to leave the ground after burning until the following spring- and then to w"»rk i'D and sow it in rape or turnips. Permanent grass is sown down on the stubble in the autumn. Two cwt. of serpentine super has been sown with all crons, and also when grass has been laid down. Getting Rid of Sen* In comparing this method of giant discing with others e.nly reasonably easy countrv is possible, but where it is applicable scrub <°nn be pot rid rf, permanently Mr Ritchie thinks, practically without trace of stumps or sticks, and a seed bed prepared for a little more than £2 an ar-re. Moreover, the ground is left so that future ton-dressing can be done mechanically. Areas too steep or inaccessible to be worked have been left in the scrub and planted in trees without being fenced. Insignus pine, Douglas fir, Japanese and Atlantic cedar and deodars are varieties planted which promise well, parthe Douglas fir. Although the earliest are not ouite two years old results so far have been encouraging with few losses. These unworked patches, comprising not more than 6 or 7 per cent., are mostly along gullies and water courses. If good stands of timber trees can be established to provide stock shelter and hold up the steeper slopes an excellent asset will be built up for future generations.