FARM AND STATION

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27374, 12 June 1954, Page 5

FARM AND STATION

(By

H.S.)

FARMING IN WESTLAND Great Potentialities Of River Soils

MONEY NEEDED TO SPEED UP DEVELOPMENT The river valleys and alluvial flats of Whataroa, Hari-Hari, Kokatahi, and Kowhitirangi are a very different proposition from the beech and silver pine terraces of northern Westland Province. Much of the land was cleared of bush many years ago and has been farmed since, and the strikingly good farms to be found anywhere on these predominantly mica schist soils demonstrate their capacity for very high production under good management

Yet management is not without its problems, some of them peculiar to the district, but most of them arising from rainfalls which may be more than 200 inches a year, and are seldom below 150 inches. A problem common to all this land is obviously drainage. The soils themselves are very free draining for the most part; but in some areas, particularly under the hills at the top ends of flats, the run off is so great that even a free draining soil cannot get rid of the water quickly enough to keep dry. Drainage in these cases cannot be done by the farmer himself with the small surface drains that are within his capacity. Big drains are necessary to collect the water under the hill and dispose of it, and big drains would need to be part of a scheme to fit a whole district and not just a few individual farms.

In some parts fern presents a curi- ' ous but very annoying problem to ' men bringing in cleared land. Second growth in these places has taken the form either of a small species of ponga, or a common fern which puts a mass of roots deep into the ground and sends its fronds out from a growth above the surface rather like a ponga a foot to two feet high. It is easy enough to deal with the true ponga. A bulldozer goes through ponga easily and leaves the ground in good order for cultivation, but the common ferns are another thing altogether. If they are bulldozed they are either torn out by the roots and leav'e a pit a foot or so deep and often two feet across which makes cultivation impossible, and leaves' the ground in a worse mess than it was with fern on it. The growth above ground is soft and yielding but remarkably tough, so that’a bulldozer is unable to shave it off at ground level. Until recently the only method of clearing the fern was to do the work by hand, but it is work that very few men would willingly undertake. Progress is exceedingly slow by hand. One settler has recently evolved a machine more or less on the principle of a lawnmower, which chops the tophampei* off to ' about ground level, and spreads the residue over the ground. Man-made Pan A generation ago substantial areas of these river flats were farmed according to the ideas of the time. Oats grew well, and oat cropping was a reasonably profitable undertaking, both to produce oats and chaff for sale off the farm, and to feed the farm horses. Much of this cropping was done on the same paddocks year after year, ant} the continued cultivation eventually built up a few inches below the surface a man-made pan which is as difficult to cope with as any natural pan. It takes years of patient management and careful manuring to get the water out of the surface soil and allow it to develop its very high productive capacity. A perennial difficulty is the handling before sowing down of land newly broken up. This is, of course, a penalty the Westland farmer pays for his splendid rainfall. Turnips are not always a sure crop, and sowing down at once on newly-worked ground usually means that big chances have to be taken with weeds, and that the pasture makes up more slowly than it should. . The problem could .possibly be met by some greenfeed crop, or perhaps one of the brassicas sown on ridges and intercultivated for weeds. Curiously enough, ridging seems to have been used very little in Westland, and in some areas has hardly even been heard of, though in high rainfall districts elsewhere it is considered essential. Thfe common picture on Westland river flats is of new grass making up far more slowly than appears tp be justified on such good soils, and with such favourable conditions of rainfall and temperature. On all the river flats soils vary widely, but all of them when well handled give really impressive production. The Whataroa plain, for instance, varies from wet land just under the hills, to well-drained and dry land in the middle of the plain, and ends in a swamp just behind the beach at sea level. Soils vary from deep schist silts to stones, but on all of them high* production is being obtained on tne better developed farms.

High-producing Herd One farm on deep silt which once carried heavy bush has been developed very little since milling ceased. It was probably originally burned and seed sown on the bum, and at present it looks far from prepossessing. one farmer there owns a herd that is among the highest producers on the West Coast, and its figures are impressive by any standards. The herd of 48 averaged last season 3371 b in a short season of 218 days without supplementary feeding beyond a very little hay in the late winter. The farm is of 200 acres. No lime or phosphate is used on this property. Top-dressing was tried, ’but without visible results. Soil tests for lime show that there is a requirement of five tons to the acre approximately, but lime has given little response. An indication of the rough state of the farm is that recently the owner had the logs and smaller stumps bulldozed off two acres and a half. The bill was £4O.

At the other extreme is a fairly big area of stone, barely covered with soil. Some of this, untouched since the light bush was cleared off it, carried a cover of browntop, some Yorkshire fog, and a lot of flatweeds and moss. There is no sign of clover in the cover, and stock will not do on it at any time of the year. Where it is improved, even if only with top-dress-ing without cultivation, this type of land shows on, several farms a capacity to grow and hold pasture of very high quality. Clay Soil

A fairly big area of what is known locally as clay bottom soil exists at Whataroa. On this type, a depth of good silty loam overlies clay, and it can be brought to a high state of production. A 130-acre farm on claybottom soil is in the hands of a young farmer who has come into the district from one of the best of the North Island dairying areas, and the influence of this man, and a number of others from outside who, like him, have seen the possibilities in Westland, is bound to have a big effect on Westland farm? ing. His property was badly run out when he took it over. His system is to plough in the winter and work the ground whenever there is an opportunity until sowing can be done in February. A mixture of ryegrasses, cocksfoot, timothy, and red and white clovers is sown. The land gets three tons of lime in its first two years, and 4cwt of superphosphate at sowing, 3cwt the following spring, and another two in the autumn, making 9cwt in its first year. This system gives really magnificent pasture, with which the only problem is one of controlling the abundant grass. This farmer has tried potash and blood and bone against straight superphosphate and lime, but has found no improvement with either of them. The ground is very uneven and difficult to cultivate efficiently, and the farmer believes that he will not get the full benefit from his improvement work until the second time round with the plough, when he will be able to make a really good job of seed bed preparation. A highly productive farm at Poerua

shows the capabilities of these river , soils. The present owner bought his • 109 acres 12 years ago, and paid £l4 , an acre for it as a going concern with plant, some implements, and 33 cows. : A few acres were cleared, and the s rest was in stumps. The work of - clearing the countrywas J and in the time since he has had it • he has brought all but 10 acres under } good grass. Most rapid progress has ■ been made in the last few years when . greatly increased returns from butter- • fat have given him the finance to de- | velop bigger areas. The year he took it over the farm produced 50121 b of butterfat. He j doubled this figure in five seasons, and has now reached about 14,5001 b. Part j of the property is stony riverbed, but ; when the 16 acres brought in this year ; and the 10 acres remaining in stumps 1 are fully developed, it should be possible to raise production to somewhere 3 near 20,0001 b, 1 Stripy of potash, basic slag, and nitro lime put down on one paddock by , this farmer some weeks ago are most interesting. The potash and slag so far show little or no response, but , either or both may do so in the spring. The response from the nitrogen has been rapid and impressive, with a very : great increase in the growth of the 1 grasses in the pasture .Nitrogen may very well have a useful place in extending pasture production further into the winter, and getting it away earlier in the spring, thus extending the production season which in Westland tends to be up to 30 days shorter than it is elsewhere. Productive Farms All over Westland highly productive farms show that the mild wet climate is particularly well suited to pasture growth on a wide range of soils. Progress has been slower than it might have been, for a variety of reasons. The first, of course, is that there has been little serioys farming until recent years. Employment in the bush and the mines was for two generations much more attractive than the laborious business of making a farm out of the bush and waiting years for returns big enough to give a living. A serious disadvantage is that West- . land suffered badly in the past, and ’ still does to some extent, from being . regarded, as a dumping ground for in- ’ ferior pasture seeds. In the days when bush was being burned off and seed . sown in the ash, a low price was the main recommendation of any line of ■ seed, and a lot of rubbish was shot on to the West C.oast. It was considered ’ about that time that the two best * species were browntop and Yorkshire ; fog, and a number of present-day far- [ mers can remember the time that these two were the only species brought on ’ to the farms. Not many Westland ; farmers yet understand as clearly as , farmers in most other parts of the Dominion that strain is as important as r the mixture sown. Few of them insist ; on seeing purity and germination certificates for the seed they buy, and consequently they pay for a lot of in- ’ ferior seed.

Throughout Westland there is abundant evidence of the need for research into farming and for active extension work. The farmers themselves are experts at clearing the ground ready for pasture, but need help in overcoming some of the problems of pasture establishment and management. The generally mediocre performance of turnip and swede crops, and the slow making up of pasture could most probably be solved by simple adjustments of cultivation, fertilising and species to a very high rainfall. A great many Westland farmers have no great knowledge of the technqiues of farming, but all are most anxious to be taught. There is a huge field for investigation and extension work, and it is one that would be very rewarding for anyone taking it up. Westland farmers naturally turn to dairying as the obvious use for the land they are improving. There is possibly a limit to the quantity of dairy produce New Zealand can turn out profitably, so that sheep and beef cattle should be considered as alternatives. The West Coast already produces beef cattle of superb quality but generally they come off big areas of extensive grazing. Smaller, more intensively farmed properties might well find a profitable trade with Canterbury m young store cattle. Drainage will be needed before the full potentialities of Westland can be reached. By no means ell of it will be drainage of swamps to give new farm land. Control of seepage from tne nills, and of surface run-off are probably more important. The river soils of Westland scour easily, so that drainage would need to be planned and carried out in big schemes to cover big areas. There are a number of instances where badly designed small schemes have resulted in serious damage to the land. Undeveloped Land Land held by owners unwilling br unable to develop it to its full capacity is a problem familiar in every farming district throughout New Zealand. The proportion of this sort of land to developed land is probably higher on the West Coast than it is elsewhere and differences in production and appearance are greater, so that the problem is much in evidence in Westland. It is exasperating to a land-hungry young man to see big areas of potentially good land almost unused by owners who will neither improve it themselves or sell to someone who will, but the problem will remove itself m time. Much of this laffd is held by older men who have spent a lifetime clearing it, and they are entitled to hold it until the end of their days Very few. New Zealanders would support any system of forcing these men off their land. As a whole, Westland has a big potential for farming development. In relation to the production that can be obtained from it, land there is cheaper than it is anywhere else in the Dominion, even at present high costs of development. Beside a specially favourable climate, the province has most of the amenities needed in the way of mam roads, railways, and power, or power potential easily developed. The farming community is very much alive to the possibilities of farming, and the non-farming population is rapidly being forced to recognise that its salvation. lies in farming. By their individual efforts the farmers are raising the productivity of their land, but a relatively modest contribution of money from the rest of the community would speed up the increase of production immeasurably. The situation in Westland is that declining productivity from the mines and forests must as a matter of urgency be offset by increased production from the farms if the province is to avoid stagnation and a waste of the community assets so far created. It is the same problem that faces the whole of New Zealand, but in a rather different lorm. Over the whole Dominion the pressure of rising population on farm production consumed here or sent overseas in erfbhange for goods can be offset only by a major increase in farm production. In both eases the community as a whole, fpr its own protection, will have to see that the farmers have available to them the money they must have to enable them to increase production. (Concluded)