FARM AND STATION

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27500, 6 November 1954, Page 5

FARM AND STATION

(By

H.S.)

BOOM WITH NORTH ISLAND LAND DEVELOPMENT

Private And Public Money Building

New Farms

LANDS DEPARTMENT’S HUGE UNDERTAKINGS

The northern half- of the North Island is at present in the middle of a boom. Small towns are growing almost while you watch, and in north Auckland (Northland to its inhabitants) they are practically bursting at the seams; new roads are being pushed ahead and old ones straightened and widened; public amenities of all sorts are springing up; and the whole atmosphere is one of aggressive progress and prosperity. This bounding activity is for the most part recent, and it is made possible only because farming is prosperous. The good prices and new techniques since the war have doubled production from long-settled districts, and provided the means to bring into high production great areas of land derelict for years, or previously untouched.

Public and private capital are going into the northern land development in roughly equal proportions. This article, and others to follow it, are written after the writer seeing for himself the development work of the Lands and Survey Department, which is responsible for practically all the public money at present being spent on making new farming land. , The Lands and Survey Department is by far the largest farmer in New Zealand, but it holds land only long enough to bring it into production. As soon as grass is well established, the land is handed on .to settlers, mostly rehabilitation men. The department's alm is to hand on farms that are, in its own phrase, “fully developed.” That means that all essential minimum improvements are provided, and that the farm is a going concern in that it is stocked, equipped with the minimum necessary buildings and subdivisions! fencing, and is at the point where it can produce full revenue. At present, the department has in hand about half a million acres in all stages of development The land runs from fluffy pumice hill soils to heavy swamp. All but an insignificant area is either virgin scrub and fern, or land once cleared which has been abandoned and has totally reverted. The department thinks in terms of grass, and measures progress by the area of new grass established year by year. The rate at present is about 50,000 acres a year. This means something like 300 new farms each year, and the graduation from 15,000 dairy cows, ),000 ewes, and 3000 beef cows, from land which four years ago was producing nothing. Biggest Stockowner The department is much the biggest individual stockowner in the Dominion. Last autumn it owned 560,200 sheep, 56,000 run cattle, and 7800 dairy cows; thousands of miles of new fencing; thousands of chains of watersupply piping; hundreds of farm houses and buildings. It owns very little farm machinery, because all cultivation, sowing, fencing and so on are done by contract. The size of the department’s land development undertakings is arresting, but just as striking is the speed and competence with which the remarkably small permanent development staff produces prosperous farms out of the wilderness. The organisation behind the work Is complex and vast, but it is directed toward the simple basic principle of modern pasture science—to build fertility with good pasture strains, appropriately fertilised, and properly grazed. The principle is not always so easy to follow in practice, but it is bringing worthless scrub into thriving pasture in tour years, and out of the hundreds of thousands o. acres so far treated there has not been one failure. Very large scale development got under way only about five years age,. It is seen to best advantage in the Taupo-Rotorua district where a dozen blocks, mostly of Crown land, each of 15,000 up to more than 30,000 acres, are being developed. These blocks are all on pumice country and the contour ranges from steep hills up to 2000 feet and more, through rolling hills and easy downs to flat valley floors. The soils vary in texture according to which ash shqwer built them, but they are almost all fluffy and porous and can stand a great deal of rain without becoming wet Rain goes straight into them, but the nature of these soils makes them good holders of moisture. Again according to their parent shower, these soils vary somewhat in fertility, but in general they will grow magnificent grass after their deficiencies of phosphate and cobalt have been built up. Most oC this 'land lies at about 300 feet upwards. Rainfall varies from about 42 inches at Taupo to 70 inches north-east toward the Bay of Plenty coast. Rainfall is usually well distributed' throughout the year, and the rain and the brisk climate that comes from elevation, give excellent conditions for pasture growth and stock thrift Scrub and Fern

Natural cover on this country is scrub on the less initially fertile areas, fern on the better parts, and bush on the best. There is in fact little bush, but a lot of heavy second growth where bush once stood. With the scrub and fem are varying amounts of tutu, gorse, broom and lupin. Many hundreds of thousands of acres carry an even cover of dark olive-drab growth up to three or four feet high against which the rich green of pasture shows up dramatically. The routine for bringing in this land is now well established. Certain basic operations are common to all the blocks, but as any farmer will at once understand, each differs in character from the others, and each has within its boundaries other differences that call for modifications of the general plan. Development of a typical block of ppmice country starts with a field survey by a specialist officer who, after studying the survey plan and contour maps, studies its soils, contour, cover, water resources and accessibility on the spot. This survey will give a rough idea of the number and type of farms the block will yield, and some idea of where roads will go. The project is then handed to the development supervisor of the district. This officer is the key man. He works directly under the heads of the de-

velopment branch in Wellington, and has a large measure of authority to make decisions on his own responsibility. The degree of this delegation of authority from head office is unusual in a Government department, or in. fact in any big private organisation, but it is obviously necessary because the needs of livestock and pasture call for day-to-day decisions which cannot wait on the slow process of suggestion, explanation and confirmation between the man on the spot and the office , in Wellington. After the original survey, the supervisor moves in. His first job is to ride, or if necessary, walk, over the block to decide the best point to establish his base. The pdlicy is to give the best cultivation possible according to contour. Ploughable land can be brought more quickly and easily into better grass than can country suitable only for giant discing, and discing country is in turn easier to deal with than steep country which can be sown and fertilised only from the air. In choosing his base, the supervisor will naturally look for an area that will give him as much easy ploughable country as possible. His decision is influenced by accessibility, because very big quantities of fencing and building material, manure, seeds, and contractors’ stores must be brought in when development begins, and it is obvious that handiness to the rest of the block and to main roads is an advantage. The supervisor looks for a piece of country that will give him the 2000 acres he will bring in in the first year’s work. Much of it will be 80 to 90 per cent, ploughable, some will" be about 50 per cgnt. discing country, and the rest will be so broken that it will fieed to be tackled entirely from the air. • The first operation on theblock will be to get the scrub off. Tt may be possible to plough it in, but usually it means that it will be crushed with a heavy roller fitted with blades about October to December, and allowed to dry but till March, when it will be burned. Probably 1000 acres will be ploughed in the first winter with a semi-swamp plough, given a heavy rolling on the furrow, and worked with disc and heavy chain harrows. Tine harrows are not used, because they bring sticks and rubbish to the surface. The land will be finally Cambridge rolled, sown with seed and 3cwt of cobaltised superphosphate on the rolling, and then back rolled to cover by the beginning of September. Establishing a Base The grass will need stock before Christmas, so while the cultivation Is going forward, the base must be established with a house for the manager, probably by this time appointed and waiting for his house before he takes over, and with a house for a man who will be on the spot to keep an eye on the stores that will come ini It will be equipped with huts for fencers and contractors. The base will have been cleared of scrub against fire. Stock will by this time have been arranged for the new grass. The stock will be wethers and bullocks, which will have as their main job control of scrub and fem growth, and consolidation of the soil. To control weed growth it 1s generally necessary to drive the stock 'and the new grass pretty hard for the first few months! The stock need fencing, so the first essential is to ring fence probably 1000 acres. A great deal of thought goes into the placing of the fence lines. The fences are permanent, and are generally three posts and 18 sawn battens to the cham, with five plain and two barbed wires. The fences must fit in with the eventual Subdivision when they will become boundary or subdivision fenees on the new farms. Seeding and fertilising are done as rapidly as possible after cultivation. Fallowing gives no advantage and final working and sowing go almost hand-in-hand. These soils seem ideal for a brush harrow to cover the ..seeds, but as contractors are hard to convince that brush harrows must be good, rolling has been adopted. With the fencing under way, water must be arranged. If creeks are available, that ■ it is all to the good. If not, water must be piped on from creeks, or bores must be put down. In some cases pumping will be needed. As clearing and cultivation are completed on the first 1000 acres, operations will be moved on to the second. 1000 acres, so that work is continuous. Cultivation will proceed from the spring right through to the autumn, and sowing will follow the cultivation. On country where more than about 50 per cent is too steep to plough, giant discs are brought in after the fire. The system is a double discing, followed by tandem discs, chain harrows, a rolling, then sow down and back roll. Contractors experienced in the work will tackle sidlings of hairraising steepness, but even then it is necessary to leave very broken gullies and faces untouched. This is often an advantage to the man who will eventually settle. Farms are cut up according to the area of grass they contain, and a farm will sometimes include a sizeable area of rough gully which can be brought into grass gradually later on to give increased carrying capacity. Steep hill country must sometimes be tackled with aircraft after the scrub is burne’d, and it complications in stock management Ideally, it must be fenced off into 100acre blocks, but 200 acres is a maxi-

mum. Stock must be crowded on to knock out the standing burnt material as well as to control regrowth, and the stock need good country behind them on which they- can be spelled. Aircraft are used a great deal by the department. It Is often profitable to sow from the air steep sidlings in otherwise easy country because once burned, country is very hard to bring back if it is let go. Seeding must follow the burn as soon as possible. Stock go on to the spring-sown grass before Christinas, when the ryegrass win be high and stalky, and the clovers beginning to fill in the bare patches. Fern and manuka and tutu will be appearing, but there will generally be few other weeds. The stocking of this new grass calls for the most precise judgment Grass and stock may need; hammering really hard to keep regrowth of fern in check on higher rainfall -country where" tern was the principal original cover. The grass is eaten down until the ground is practically bare, and stock are working hungrily over the country. Neither the stock nor the grass must be allowed to get so far down that they -will be harmed.

Spell on Good Feed The stock may be replaced by fresh mobs in good condition, and given a spell on good feed to recover. Where possible the grass is spelled for a time in the autumn to let the clovers seed, but not at the expense of letting up the young fern or scrub. This initial grazing calls for almost day-by-day watching, and for the highest degree of skill and judgment On its outcome will depend the quality of the resulting pasture, and the time taken to build it sufficiently to allow it to be handed over to a settler.

This early handling of the grass is much the most interesting feature of the development work, and is the key to its success. At times the grass must be given an incredibly hard time in the interests of weed control. One 500-acre lot of hill country needed for a nine weeks’ period a mob of about 700 bullocks continuously on it to crush out and keep down fern. The bollocks could be left on for only three weeks before they had to be replaced, so that about 2000 bullocks were required to secure control of the 500 acres.

This example gives a clue to the vast resources needed to bring in country quickly. The bullocks were worth probably £60,000, and their function was purely that of a fern-crushing implement Not many individuals or organisations can afford to put £60,000 worth of capital into a fern-crushing implement. The powers of recovery of modem pasture plants under this treatment are astonishing. On this raw, phos-phate-deficient soil pasture comes away at first looking rather pale and starved. It generally has to be hammered really hard at first, yet as soon as it is let up it comes away with added vigour from the stock droppings and from the phosphates. In its second spring, it is beginning to take on a good colour and to grow realty vigorously, and at 18 months is an established pasture. The hard grazing means that in its early life it is heavily cloven-dominant, but at three years it has become a wellbalanced pasture, with as thick bottom, and the sheen and strong colour of a robust and vigorously growing stand of grass. At its best it may by this time be capable of carrying a dairy cow to the acre, or three or four ewes to the acre, with a beef cow to four acres. Not only on the pumice soils, but on all sots of Soils, this transformation Is being worked by the department and by private Individuals. There seems to be no end to its possibilities. i ; ■ (To be continued.)