FARMING OVERSEAS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27149, 19 September 1953, Page 5

FARMING OVERSEAS

Arable Districts Of Scotland

AGRICULTURE OF HIGH COMPETENCE

[By H. STUDHOLME} XVI

The Lothians are usually considered to be the eye of Scottish farming, and it may well be that in soil, topography and climate the Lothians are particularly favoured; but throughout Scotland, from the Borders to Caithness, wherever the land will carry a plough, agriculture has been brought to a state of perfection unsurpassed anywhere. It is unusual to see land badly farmed there, and* this consistent high- standard is quite the most striking feature of Scottish arable farming. In general, the mountainous land of Scotland lies to the west, with the easier country toward and along the eastern coast. There are exceptions to this rule, as for instance the famous western counties of Ayrshire, Wigtownshire and Kircudbrightshire, but in the main it is in the east that arable farming is most common. But even in the east, there are no great areas of flat land. The common picture is of a country of rolling to steep hills, with occasional flats along the creeks and rivers in the valleys. The heather of the higher and hungrier country is never far away, and crop and pasture have been pushed up the hillsides until thin soil or peat over solid rock, has made cultivation impossible.

The climate of Scotland is hard. The mountains stand against the westerlies which sweep in from the Atlantic, and rainfall in the west is consequently high. Totals are 60 or 70 inches in many western districts. To the east rainfall is lower, and totals of 24 to 36 inches a year are common. Rainfall is well spread everywhere, and even in the drier east, harvest is a time of uncertainty. The winters are, of course, extremely cold and prolonged, and when winter once sets in, Scottish farmers must look to about six months when the soil lies lifeless and sodden in a way that is not seen in New Zealland even in the more elevated districts of Southland.

It is a little difficult for a Canterbury man to make up his mind about Scottish soils. They all look good by Canterbury standards, except some of the sour clays and the mountain peats. The soils are normally of good depth, and under the art of the best Scottish farmers they produce amazingly during the six months period of growth. More Livestock More livestock, both sheep and cattle, are run on Scottish farms than is usual in England. The number of livestock, most of them obviously of very high quality, to be seen . about Scottish farms is probably the first feature of the Scottish- countryside to strike a New Zealander. With the livestock, of course, goes grass, and the common farm policy, in Scotland is about one third of the farm in crop, and the rest in grass, on a six-year rotation. So firmly established has this four years’ grass and two years’ crop become in certain parts, notably Aberdeenshire. that one can find farm after farm of 120 acres subdivided into six main paddocks of 20 acres each. The writer heard an Aberdeenshire farmer fix the date of a certain event positively by recalling that in such and such a field he was at the time harvesting oats. That would make it, he said, either 18, 24, or 30 years ago, and as it was certainly more than 18 and less than 30, it must have been August, 1928.

The Scottish farmer believes that farming without livestock is not farming at all, and the wartime control of agriculture, which forced him away from stock toward more cropping was a source of resentment. Controls in any event, sit uneasily on a Scot. Some of the older farmers fear that the price systems of recent years, which have encouraged cropping at the expense of the traditional system of court-feeding of beef cattle, may destroy the traditional systems altogether, and they point to empty courts as a sign of decay. Nevertheless, they feel that with the emphasis swinging a little toward beef, and with the price of fertilisers so high, courtfeeding of beef may return, as dunghandled with modern machines is again the cheapest and best of all manures.

It is not possible to reduce to words the beauty of this Scottish countryside. It recurs wherever the mountains give way to cultivable land, and much of it comes from the perfection of the farming that is carried out upon it. I The run from Edinburgh 60 miles up the Forth to Aberfoyle, one of the many “gateways to the Highlands,” is typical of many such runs, longer or shorter, through country farmed as well as one could hope to see land farmed anywhere. Near Edinburgh there is naturally more evidence of industry than of farming, yet farming comes close in to the City. No land is wasted by the community as a whole, and the individual farmer likewise makes the best use of every square yard he has. Farm buildings throughout the whole length of this piece of country were in excellent repair, and fences, many of them drystone dykes, were perfectly maintained. Everything about the farms was neat. The steadings were usually clearly marked from the farm, in that there were no untidy paddocks separating them from the rest of the farm.

Good Hay Season The writer saw this country first in August, when the grain harvest was under way, yet the dominant colour was the strong green of wellfertilised and grazed grass, interspersed with the gold and yellow of crop in the stook or standing ready for harvest. It had been a good hay season, and huge quantities were already in stack. The principal crop seemed to be oats, with some wheat, and some barley, but much less barley than would be seen in England. The stacks hereabout were characteristic. Whether they were round or long, they were high and very narrow, with the thatch given an exceedingly steep pitch. The round stacks were almost the shape of bullets They looked vulnerable to the wind, but doubtless that contingency has been well thought of by their builders. There were 27 in one stackyard. . Red clover was showing everywhere, often with what seemed to be ryegrass alone, and everywhere it was growing with great vigour. Hay is here always made by cocking, and there

were paddocks of cocks with the new . growth coming strongly among them • almost ready for the second cut. On every farm there were sheep ; and cattle. Some were dairy cattle, , but many more were beef herds, and all were in first-class order. About half the beef cattle were Shorthorns, but there were many blacks beside, and many crosses of these breeds. Blues were common. A few Herefords could be seen, and an occasional Highlander or Highland cross, which makes excellent beef. A surprisingly high percentage of the sheep were Blackface or crosses of that breed, no doubt bought for fattening from hill breeders. Border Leicesters, or the Scottish halfbred which is a cross between a Border and a Cheviot, were also very common. In many cases the sheep and cattle were grazing together, and practically every farm carried what appeared to be a good concentration of stock. The whole scene was one of almost picture-book perfection and neatness There were no untidy paddocks, and where crop had been cut, the stooks were lined up with mathematical precision. The stooks themselves were carefully built, with the heads well mated, and the butts truly lined up. In one paddock, a crop it was not

possible .to identify was put up in stooks of four tall, thin sheaves, with the heads bound together with string. No New Zealander, or South Islander anyway, could fail to feel at home with Scottish farming people. For one thing, a surprising number of these families have members who have come to New Zealand, and one is constantly asked about Cuthbertsons, Mclvers, Souters, Macdonalds, and dozens of others who left Scotland two generations back, who have lost touch with home, but are known to be still in New Zealand. The writer was able to give news of one such family, the Urquharts, who have made a great name in the South Island hills. A strong similarity with New Zealand lies in the relationship between the farmer and his employees. The social gap between them, so wide in much of England, tends to disappear. Unlike his English counterpart, but very like his New Zealand opposite number, the Scottish farm worker generally looks one day to farm on his own account. He is well paid, and well treated, and in return gives energy and skill of a high order. Except for the annoyance of controls, which are against his instincts, the Scottish arable farmer is at present in great heart. Even in the worst times he was able to make a living, and in these good times profits are substantial, and there are ways of keeping some of them from the hands

of the taxgatherer and banking them safely in the land. Tne Scot does not altogether believe that the good times are here permanently, so that he is spending less on new buildings, which are incidentally exceedingly expensive, than on other developments which will give him a quicker return. He is exceedingly well-informed and adopts new methods readily. This is probably in part a result of the excellent system of agricultural extension in Scotland, which is based on the Universities and Agricultural Colleges, and' not, as in England, on the no doubt efficient, but rather remote Government National Agricultural Advisory Service. The field officer works directly back to the specialists and researchers behind him. and thus a great part of the field trial? and research work in Scotland are done as a co-operative effort between an interested farmer and scientist from the University, and their results are followed keenly by a wide circle of practical men.

Australian frozen meat shipments for the first nine months of the 1952-53 season were 141 per cent, higher than in the previous year. Total pastoral production for that year was estimated at £545,000.000. an increase of £95,000,000 over the previous year.