HOBSON’S CHOICE.... The Future Of The High Country

Press, Volume XCVII, Issue 28701, 26 September 1958, Page 12 (Supplement)

HOBSON’S CHOICE.... The Future Of The High Country

By

Dr. KEVIN O’CONNOR,

Liaison Officer for Tussock Grassland Research, Department of Agriculture.

17ABLE has it that a man, named Hobson once kept ■ a stable with a wide range of horses to choose from. The only difficulty involved was that his patrons were obliged to take the steed nearest the door.

So runs the story. It has real meaning for the runs of the South Island in 1958, especially for those that stretch back to the high altitudes of the hinterland.

Rangeland management has but one essential choice^—development or decay.

With this basic alternative goes the strong probability that any attempt to find a long-term escape between the horns of this dilemma, by continuing traditional rangeland management with little or no modification, will fresult in disaster—permanent damage to the high mountainlands and costly flooding problems for the lowlands. This isn’t news. For many years men of all colours of opinion and experience have, at least privately, held the vipw that some radical change in rangeland management was necessary for survival. For them 4he long hard ride of development had to be faced sometime: but how? Until a few years ago, the high country did not even have a horse for that ride! There were

no real practical prospects for development, none at least that wouldn’t bankrupt the rider. New Prospects Prospects are different now. There is enough knowledge being spread abroad through the tussocks for the runholder to climb into the saddle, even though he may be a little cautious lest the beast break into a gallop that will not be stopped by a hard rein. There are enough means for the start top, as well as the knowledge. Aircraft, experienced pilots, landing strips, supplies of suitable seed, fertiliser and inoculants, skilled advice for difficult circumstances—all these are there —and money, well money is like a good dog. It will work for you when you have it. And when you want

it and haven’t it, you’re willing to go a mile or more for it.

Not all the ways of rangeland development are the same. .1 mentioned how Hobson kept a wide range of horses. So it is with the rangeland development stable.

Some will develop with the swift gait of ploughing, linking, cropping and heavy manuring. Others will start on the road with the more cautious tread of extensive light applications of essential manures to previously unimproved country, gradually building upfertility and production of wool per head, culling a little heavier but only very slowly increasing the size of the flock. Between these two extremes there are all shades of degree of development. In practice it will be found that this wide range of choices does not exist for every run.

e . For most properties there will □ be in fact Hobson’s choice, only i one path of development that fits e perfectly the resources of land. It climate, capital, labour and mane agerial ability that are tied up in the complex that goes to rpake e up a high country run. But like Hobson’s horses which, 5 we presume, each had four legs, e a head and a tail, we find that s, each of these ways of development has certain features in d common. d n Basic Features t These features are basic. Without them the horse stumbles, or wanders into the ditch or just won’t budge from the stall. Four new factors in development are necessary. A substantial increase in fertility of potentially productive rangeland is needed. A substantial introduction of plants which are able to take advantage of that new fertility will have to be made. A basic change in the pattern of animal utilisation to fit the new pasture production must come. A healthy respect for the limij tations of climate on animal production, pasture growth and nitrogen fixation and conversion will complete the list. With these essentials to stand on and capable runholders in the saddle, the long ride up to a safe, productive and highly * efficient rangeland system sterns to be possible even if not at present deadly defined in all its details.

Greater changes are yet to come, changes in the class and breed of livestock, changes in the class of country grazed in summer, changes in the pattern of winter feeding, changes in the pattern of income and of costs. But with four strong legs like those listed above, rangeland velopment is a horse which can be given its head.