PLEA FOR TOPDRESSING OF OUR HILL COUNTRY

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28938, 4 July 1959, Page 9

PLEA FOR TOPDRESSING OF OUR HILL COUNTRY

SOUTH I

The grand old man of New Zealand grasslands, Sir Bruce Levy returned to the fray at the Massey College sheepfarmers’ conference this week to make a spirited plea for the topdressing of New Zealand hill country in the interests of both that country itself, those who live on it and the national economy. As on the lowlands the two basic essentials for the development of the hill country were topdressing and a higher density of stock per acre under manageable control, he said. The natural environment Of the hills was generally hard and poor once the fleeting fertility of the forest burn was depleted. “Topdress the deforested hills or be prepared to abandon millions of acres of hill country to manuka, gorse, blackberry, tawhini, fern and developmental trees precursors to forest,” said Sir Bruce. One and a half to two dry. sheep to the acre or their equivalent in store cattle did not provide the mechanical mouth and hoof power to weight the balance in favour of grass—the secondary growth would win. That number of sheep would also provide insufficient dung and urine to improve soil fertility on which all potential and sustained production depended. Sir Bruce said that he had to stress that full utilisation of all herbage produced by in situ fed animals was the crux of the situation. It was dependent on the simple basic fact that feed consumed and digested was back again into the fertility cycle through the dung and urine within 24 hours. If feed was left to rot back ungrazed, or if it was taken as hay or silage, though he recognised that this could not be done without, it might be 12 months before it was back into the cycle again. “The hills, like most of the lowlands, in their initial low state of soil fertility must have the same initial boost that we give the lowlands,” he said. “It has been commonplace in developing lowland pumice, gumlands and cold clays to. give up to half a ton of phosphate, plus lime, two tons to the acre on the gumlands and clay soils, and it is my contention that the major hill coun-

try will not develop its full potential until this amount of phosphate, with or without lime, is applied. Some hills may need potash and molybdenum in addition. Thereafter, as on the lowlands, once the clovers are in good heart and stock numbers are built up, normal 2 to 3cwt annual dressings of phosphate will continue to trigger the cyclic movement and give momentum to the continuous process climaxed by a higher production of readily edible herbage.”

Financing Development

To the process of developing hill country, Sir Bruce said that he often wondered whether the company principle could not be extended as it now applied to industrial development and most land servicing agencies, so that moneys invested by farmers in Government, industrial and other ventures could be more advantageously used in development of the land. There was, he said, much to be said for the State taking control in the initial development of vast areas of hills. If fanners did not topdress the hills they might lose their personal freedom to farm the hills as the stage was fast being approached where the land dare not become the bottleneck in increased production of raw farming materials. The interests represented in the billions invested in dairy factories, meat works, wool stores, fertiliser works and the

like and the vast expansion of secondary industry could not afford, or condone, the land becoming the limiting factor in their progress and prosperity. If the hills were not topdressed farmers also stood to lose the aerial topdressing industry built up over the pioneering years by daredevil pilots, aerial topdressing companies and the civil aviation authorities.

It was of course necessary that stock must be thrifty and a mineral-nitrogen balance must be sought to that end. “Lime, cobalt, sulphur, copper, iron and the correct balance of molybdenum and copper are aspects of topdressing needing much research, but to decry mineral topdressing on the grounds they are inorganic, artificial fertilisers and so, per se, are injurious to stock is doing your great industry a great disservice and encourages deterioration of the hills. “Topdress the hills and stop moaning about income tax and death duties,” continued Sir Bruce. “The mere fact that these are high proclaims your prospperity. It will be a sad day for the country and for everyone in it should the farmers’ lot not be a highly prosperous one. We should consciously rejoice that the land

is prosperous for that means that there is wealth to redistribute so that all and sundry will eventually benefit. It concerns me not one whit who first receives and handles that primary wealth. Its redistribution is the essential thing and I do not think that the farmer in New Zealand is a hoarder.” Sir Bruce said that New Zealand farm income at the gate must total about £3oom of which some £2som earned overseas exchange. Were it not for the expenses and the services to the land and its produce to be met, the 100,000 land owners would be wealthy indeed today, but even so there was a fair bit left in the kitty and that was a fair target for income tax and death duties. In the final analysis Sir Bruce said that all depended on the hill country farmer and as he valued individual ownership of land above ail else he must not fail. He had to topdress and stock the hlils or there could be little or no progress and if it was not done there would be much more deterioration and a declining, devastating hill country morale.

There were still too many, he. said, relying on big acreages and taking from those acres what God gave for nothing. . . . The deforested hills just could not be ranch-farmed indefinitely. Sooner or later the forest by way of a series of secondary growths would again take charge.