FARM AND STATION

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27368, 5 June 1954, Page 5

FARM AND STATION

(By

H.S.)

LAND DEVELOPMENT IN WESTLAND

Potentialities Demonstrated On -> Many Farms

Westland Province is turning to farming to offset the dwindling production and employment of its traditional sources of wealth—the mines and the bush. New fields of production and employment are urgently needed, but individual Westland farmers are not driven to the land in desperation. They are farming with an enthusiasm not equalled in any of the older farming areas ofj, the Dominion.

Westland has great advantages in fertile soils, and an almost ideal grassland climate which, properly exploited, can give high production even from soils of only moderate quality. Both these points are well demonstrated on individual Westland farms, but as a whole, Westkind farmers have a lot to learn. This is not a criticism of Westland farmers, but is a situation which arises from a remarkable absence of farming tradition among the whole population of Westland. Thus the men who are at last turning seriously to the land are handicapped not only by an absence of farming background,* but also by a lack of appreciation of. the possibilities of agriculture among a community which should be helping-with the financial and other encouragement that the land in Westland so badly needs.

Southland from its earliest days hafe had a strong tradition of farming, and has for much of its history been held up as a model province; but even with tnis strong farming spirit, it is only within the last 20 years that great areas of Southland have been brought into high production out of browntop and red tussock. In this development work Southland farmers were not faced with the gigantic task of first clearing their land of the mess of stumps and second growth that faces the typical Westland improver. A further handicap to Westland is that agricultural science has given the province very little attention. Unusual soils, and a rainfall which in places exceeds 200 inches a year, obviously present special problems on which science could give useful guidance.' Grassland production from individual Westland farms is as high as from the best in the most advanced districts, but it has been achieved the hard way. The soils of many Westland districts are ideal for grassland production, and arq easily developed. They are deep, fertile and naturally well-drained, but other areas present special difficulties of their own. In this second class are the beech and silver pine terrace soils of which there are large areas. Westlanders maintain that there is no true pakihi land in their province, but much of this terrace land has until recently been regarded .as pakihi, and has been neglected as a results The work of a number of farmers recently has shown that there are tremendous possibilities in these soils. A big area of beech terrace country is found in the Nelson Creek district north-east of Greymouth. Upwards of 30,000 acres of this type of soil is believed to be capable of high production by the few enthusiasts who are at present tackling it. This country lies at about 300 feet to 500 feet above sea level, and is largely fiat, with here and there small ridges. Rainfall is from 70 to 80 inches upwprd. It is not far from the coast, but a range of coastal hills cuts it off from the influence of the sea, and the climate is harder than on the coast. Frosts are severe, but aS a whole, the climate is good for growing grass. Heavy Bush Coyer on the land was originally heavy bush in which beech and silver pine predominated. It was milled and burnt over many years ago, and its present state is patches of bush and scrub on large areas of marshy ground growing sedges, rushes, and lowproducing grasses in which there are fallen logs and standing stumps and burnt, dead trees. Anyone who has been on the West Coast has seen large areas of similar land. It gives the general impression of a red colour from the ground vegetation and of sour, waterlogged soils. The soils vary from several feet of peaty loam to soils consisting of round alluvial stones mixed with soil. As a whole, this country is held in large blocks bought years ago very cheaply from the milling companies, and holdings of 500 to 2000 acres are usual. Its normal use has been to run a few breeding cows and a few ewes with little or no subdivision. As a rule, the owners work elsewhere, and cash the natural increase of their cattle and sheep to give a supplement to income earned away from the farm. Farm operations occupy the minimum of the time of the owners. This sounds most unpromising material for grassland farming, but a few men in the Nelson Creek area are showing that excellent grass can be grown on the beech terrace country when the rubbish is dulldozed off it

costs that would satisfy even the most casual accountant. The department has kept careful costings, and has found that clearing with a bulldozer, cultivating, sowing lime and phosphate, and laying down to grass costs about £24 10s an acre without fencing. Reasonably good results have been obtained by farmers on this land by working the ground and sowing straight down to grass. In general, turnip crops have not been markedly successful, but are good enough to encourage improvers to carry on with them. Some of the pasture where grazing has been heaviest are firstclass. Many of them exhibit signs of unthriftiness even under good management, and it is obvious that investigation of methods of establishment, seeds mixtures, and manurial treatment are needed.

The picture presented by this Nel- 3 son Creek beech terrace country is ex- , tremely encouraging. Farming, at least on modern lines, is a new undertaking there, and many problems of grass establishment and management ( nave yet to be worked out. As a - whole, the farmers’ time and resources . are so heavily committed that they ■ are left with little or no scope for ex- ; perimental work. Nevertheless, their . progress so far is such that their • optimism is fully justified. Science Needed Their first need is for scientific in- 1 vestigation of their problems. Look- 1 ing at the good pasture that grows on much of the developed area, it is im- ■ possible to believe that these investigations need be long or involved. The ; raw soil has lain wet under bush for centuries, and still lies wet when the : bush is taken pff. It may be found that something as simple as the addi- : tion of a little nitrogen may start the : fertility-building cycle. Greenfeed crops so far untried may be the answer. The farmers themselves have evolved highly efficient techniques for clearing the land ready for farming, , and have found that costs are not prohibitive. The second need of these men is for inance, a familiar need up and down the coast. Some Marginal Lands finance has bfeen used, but probably because little has been used, there is some prejudice against it. One man considered that the board might insist on directing his development programme; and another felt it might charge him with the full amount of his loan at once, instead of allowing him to draw on it as he needed it during development. A criticism heard in several places is that the board finances the man rather than the class of land he is on. The first objections were answered by Mr Greig in his address to the Lincoln College Farmers’ Conference, and the last is probably only a matter of the board managing public money prudently on land about which little is yet known. One of the famous farming areas of Westland is Totara Flat, where grassland production has been brought to a high state of efficiency. The soils are mostly good alluvial loams, but the district has a fairly big area of swamp land which is usually regarded by the settlers as being too expensive to bring in. Some of the best pasture to be seen in Westland has been established on swamp by a man who believed that with modern machinery costs were not prohibitive. He took on 40 acres of waterlogged land, cleared it of logs, and ran drains through it. Efficie?nt drainage was achieved with a relatively few open ditches, and the excellent soil dried out quickly once the water was off. The cost of clearing 1 and draining was £l5 an acre. The soil here is better than the soils of the beech terrace country, and a smaller area brought in many years ago has continued to produce so well that he had no misgivings about the result. Clearing and Draining After clearing and draining, the land was cultivated with two strokes of bush and bog discs, and soft turnips sown. When the turnips are fed off, the ground is again disced and another crop of soft turnips sown. Another working follows, and the land is left up until it is sown down in grass early in the year. By the time the grass is in. the land has had three tons of lime and 2£cwt of super. The mixture used was a bushel of perennial ryegrass. 101 b of Hl, 41b of timothy, 31b of white clover, 211 b of Montgomery red, 21b of cowgrass »nd 11b of alsike. ‘the result is a pasture which could hardly be excelled anywhere. All the species have grown well, and the 40 acres was carrying a mob of 28 bullocks in the middle of May. and the feed was getting away from them. Part of this 40 acres was given an extra IJcwt of super this season, and the extra super contained molybdenum. This part of the area is strikingly better than thfe rest. The question of whether it was the additional phosphate, or the ipolybderium which gave the extra growth is one of many Westland problems that could be simply answered by trial plots. Parts of the paddock had only a ton of lime, and in places the topdresser had missed with super. These hungry patches left no doubt whatever of the part that lime and super play in the development of this type of country. Highly successful development of beech terraces is going on on a farm at Atarua, on, the other side of the Grey river from Nelson Creek. This is particularly difficult country, because the cover is dense bracken and blackberry. overgrowing very big beech logs. The initial clearing is done with a bulldozer, but final clearing of the land leaves a lot of work with a heavy tractor, and a lot of hand clearing of lighter material. After clearing, preferably in the winter, the land is bush and bog harrowed and worked down for a turnip crop. A second crop of turnips is taken, or if the weather holds up cultivation, Western Wolths may replace the turnips. After a final working, the land is sown with grass and rape. The mixture used is 181 b of perennial ryegrass, 101 b of cocksfoot, which grows well there, 31b of Montgomery clover and 31b of cowgrass. When timothy is available, it is sown at 11b, or perhaps 21b. White clover comes naturally in this country, so that only 11b is sown with the mixture. There is a tendency all over Westland to rely to some extent on the clover in the ground, but it is a mistake, as experience will show. The new strains of bred clovers so far surpass the old strains in production, persistency and reliability that the few shillings an acre saved are not worth it. On this property a ton of lime is sown with the initial crops and with the grass, and thereafter the. land gets a ton every three or four years. The older pastures, up to seven years, on this property leave no doubt of the capabilities of the land to produce good grass, and to support sheep and cattle in grand condition. As development has proceeded, the new turnip and grass areas have produced an abundance of winter feed, and it has been necessary in the last few years to buy in stock to cope with the winter . feed. The farm therefore normally carries more stock in the winter than it does in

and some surface drainage done. One man with a 350-acre property has cleared about 50 acres in nve years, all by hand. The land was under scrub for the most part, and this had to be cut and burned. Under the scrub were old logs, which were dragged off with a tractor, and under the logs he frequently encountered large stumps at about ground level, which had to be blasted out with explosives. He dug shallow drains to clear the worst of the surface water. The soil is about three feet of peaty loam, which responds well to liming and superphosphate once the worst of the water is off. He carries 25 cows, mostly on • the improved grass, but making use also of the rough grazing outside the developed area. Four years ago the monthly return frpm his cows was about 30s a head. This season it has been about £4 a head, a measure of the improvement brought about by better grass and lime and phosphate. His cows were a very ordinary lot to start with. He had to buy what his limited capital resources would allow him to buy, but he is now well enough established to begin culling the herd, and this alone, without any further improvement in the feed available, should bring a marked improvement in returns. Limited Revenue

This man’s handicaps are typical of the difficulties of so many Westland farmers. Revenue from the small herd is not enough to give him money for improving the place, and he spends a lot of time working off the farm to make money to pay for improvements and implements he needs. Work on the farm itself demands a good deal of his time, and this work, added to the outside work, means that he is pressed to the limits of his capacity. Progress is obviously slow, and is possible at all only because of the tenacity and back-breaking toil of this man and many more like him. A group of three farms alongside one another in the same district show interesting variations in the method of bringing in this beech terrace country. One of these farms is fairly typical pf the rest. It is of 1200 acres, of which 100 acres have been cleared and sown down to grass. It carries 33 dairy cows, 300 ewes, and 80 beef cattle. Judged by the best of the developed land, it is probably capable of carrying the equivalent of 600 dairy cows when fully developed. Different areas of these three farms have been either disced and surface sown at once, disced twice and then sown, or ploughed, worked, sown in turnips, and then grassed down. Ploughing seems to give the best results most quickly, but it is slow and made difficult by the unevenness of the ground, and by the presence of stumps and roots just below the sur--9 face. A serious disadvantage with ploughing is that, in the high rainfall of the area, all cultivation has to be done when the chance offers. Most farmers try to get the cultivation over and the pasture down as quickly* as possible, because leaving the ground up ensures a heavy crop of weeds of air sorts. Bad weather may delay cultivation until the weeds have so firm a grip that the effort put into the first ploughing may almost be lost. Ploughing is more expensive than discing, and the take of grass on disced land is just good enough to raise doubts as to whether the extra expense and anxiety of ploughing are justified. To obtain some information on the costs and effectiveness of the different methods, the Department of Agriculture has established plots on one of these farms. Farmers doing the clearing work themselves are very frequently unable to give an estimate of

the summer. The farm turns off all the lambs from 520 ewes fat, and produces about 40 head of fat cattle every year from about 105 acres of reclaimed land.

One of the problems of this, and other similar farms, is to arrange the work of clearing so that land cleared can be worked at once to prevent it going back to fern and blackberry. This is a very real problem. There are plenty of contractors with bulldozers in the district, but work on farms is less attractive to the operators than work for the Government or for public bodies. It is necessary to have about £3OO or £4OO worth of work in one lot on a farm to make it attractive to the contractors, and the cleared land represented by this sum means a very full programme of cultivation work by the farmer, and careful planning of stock numbers to maintain control. The work must be done at a time when cultivation can follow straight on the clearing to give control of weeds. A farmer bringing in land of this sort must have in hand not only enough money to pay the contractor, but also to finance the cultivation, sowing, manuring and extra stock needed if much of the cost of the bulldozing is not to be wasted. An important factor- is time. The initial work must be done during the winter so that the cultivation and sowing can follow quickly and in their right season. A farmer embarking on development work has to do a lot of careful organising of his money and time; Perhaps because the undeveloped land on this farm is rougher than most, the contrast between the old and the new is specially striking. On one side of the fence is first-class pasture carrying a big number of thriving stock. On the other is a wilderness of fern, scrub and blackberry which has overgrown a sea of big logs. The farm illustrates in unmistakable terms the possibilities of the beech terrace country, of which tens of thousands of acres in northern Westland need only the application of a little money and a little science to produce with the- best grassland areas of the Dominion.

The principal need of all this country is money. Experience with small areas show that in relation to the production obtainable, the capital required for development is insignificant. Nevertheless, it is beyond the capacity of most of the occupiers to provide. Too much development is being done almost by hand on programmes which will take years of crippling work, where a little capital spent could reduce the time to months. The work of these lion-hearted men has shown that there is no mystery about the mechanical side of land development, and that when it is developed the land is capable of carrying grass as productive as in any other part of the country. (To be concluded.)