THE AUSTRALIAN FARM SCENE New Zealand’s Influence On Farm Practice

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29803, 21 April 1962, Page 7

THE AUSTRALIAN FARM SCENE New Zealand’s Influence On Farm Practice

A New Zealander, Mr H. J. Geddes, who is at present acting head of the animal husbandry department of Sydney University, has had a profound influence on farming practice in the Cumberland county, which lies just outside Sydney, between the city and the Blue Mountains.

It is rather surprising to find that this area, so handy to Australia's largest city, should still be comparatively undeveloped. It was, in fact, one of the first areas in the country to be farmed for wheat production, but when the early settlers crossed the Blue Mountains and reached more favourable soils this area was virtually deserted and a high proportion of the district is still in poor native grasses, scrub and second growth timber. Because of its proximity to Sydney it has, however, been extensively used for milk production for the city, but the poor feeding value and sparseness of the pastures have made heavy concentrate z feeding necessary and some 60 per cent, of feed supplies has had to be brought some 150 miles from over the mountains at considerable cost.

The soils are naturally fairly poor. There is a depth of six to 18 inches of soil and where in places it has been washed away a reddish clay sub-soil is exposed Phosphorus and molybdenum have been found to be deficient in these soils but the major deficiency of this country is an adequate rainfall.

Sydney University Badgery’s Creek property which lies some 26 miles from the centre of the city in Cumberland county has a rainfall of only about 26 inches, comuared with Sydney's average of 47 inches. The distribution of the Rainfall at tiadgery's Creek is erraticsix or seven inches may fall in sudden deluges in two days—so that the effective fall is only about 16 or 17 inches.

Mr Geddes, who comes from Redcliff in South Canterbury, graduated master of agricultural science at Lincoln College in 1929 and after lecturing in field husbandry at the college for a little more than three years came to Australia after spending a few months in Tasmania.

For seven years he was an agricultural writer on the 'Weekly Times" of Melbourne before taking up the post of senior lecturer in animal husbandry at Sydney University with charge of the 400 acres property at Badgery’s Creek.

Mr Geddes’s system of "water harvesting,” which he conceived on Badgery’s C _ eek, has not only caught the imagination of many Australians but has resulted in a demand for his services overseas. He has for instance flown to California to advise on the use of his system on a property there and American cattle men who visited him a few days ago are keen to have him visit the United States again. How did all this happen? It grew out of an accidental experience in 1952 when 3} acres of subterranean clover irrigated from a farm dam showed a gross return of £174 an acre under dairying. This stimulated interest in the possibility of developing an irrigation system by storing run-off from periodic rain storms. Actually the country is well suited to such a system. Of a rolling nature it has a high level of run off —some 50 per cent, of rain is believed to get back into the 1 rivers and the subsoil pro-

vides excellent materials for storage embankments. Mr Geddes developed a system of water storage much more economic than the tank-like hole in the ground which for every cubic yard of material excavated gives a similar amount of storage. Most of the dams raised in the valleys give a storage to excavation ratio of five or six to one or better. And on the flats adjacent to streams the answer has been the “turkey nest" with a simple earth wall built entirely round a circle. The turkey nest on Badgery’s creek which covers four acres holds 8J million gallons, averages Bft Bin deep, cost £2l an acre-foot to build and provides water at a total cost (including pumping water into it) of 32s (Australian) an acre-foot. The wall is excavated between two circles 50ft apart working from the inside so that the centre of the nest is untouched. The nest on Badgery’s Creek holds 64 cubic yards of water for each yard of excavation. Water is pumped into it by axial pump from an adjacent creek which rises in periods of rain. The whole storage area can be filled in 18 to 20 hours of pumping with the pump operated by a tractor. Mr Geddes found that it was possible to lift an acre-foot of water one foot for less than a shilling which was a vital" factor in the economics of this method of storage,

These articles are by D. L. Fyfe, agricultural editor of “The Press," who is at present in Australia as holder of a Bank of Neto South Wales travel award

A system of drains links all of the 12 dams on the place to ensure maximum water conservation and water may also be pumped to them out of the creek by way of the connecting irrigation main for the sprinkler system of irrigation. Mr Geddes says that rain which fell for two or three days last November put into the 56 million gallon storage system enough water to provide irrigation needs for if necessary, two years. A type of economical water storage for irrigation in rolling country based on simple principles, Mr Geddes believes that it could be most successfully applied in the South Canterbury downlands.

Neighbouring farmers in Cumberland county have been quick to follow the example on Badgery’s Creek Whereas about 15 of 430 farmers in >the district were irrigating when Mr Geddes started his work, the most

recent survey showed that 85 of them were doing it, and also more than 50 per cent, were using nitrogen to stimulate feed growth. Mr Geddes quotes the case of a family in occupation of a property for 100 years who were accustomed to spending £lO,OOO on extra feed. In the first year after spending £2400 on dams and £2OOO on irrigation equipment their feed bill was cut by a half and they got more milk into the bargain. The expenditure on dams and irrigation and operating costs were, all paid for by the saving in the first year.