THE AUSTRALIAN SCENE Equivalent Of Farm Improvement Club

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29820, 12 May 1962, Page 7

THE AUSTRALIAN SCENE Equivalent Of Farm Improvement Club

Bombala, a rural centre of about 2200 people in the south* eastern corner of New South Wales about 320 miles from Sydney and 340 miles from Melbourne, is the headquarters of Australia’s pioneer farm improvement club, or as it is known there district rural advisory 7 service.

The service was established about six years ago when fanners in the district banded together to employ as their private consultant an energetic agronomist then in the service of the Department of Agriculture in the district, Mr Noel Douglas.

The chairman of the management committee of the service, Mr H. E. B. Shaw, who is a veterinarian and former member of the staff of the Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation as well as a farmer, said that in its initial stages the service had worked on some New Zealand ideas adapting them to its requirements. Since then many more services have been set up, particularly in Western Australia.

The Bombola service has 32 members with properties ranging from 1000 to 11,000 acres, including overall about 90,000 acres. These properties are located in a radius of about 30 miles. The country in the district is mainly of a basalt, granits and slate nature and ranges from 2300 to 3100 ft above sea level with a rainfall varying from 20 to 35 inches. Mr Douglas says that with its combination of reasonably good rainfall and soils the district is one of the most favourable in the country for pasture improvement. Tire service gives its members a rather more diverse type of service than clubs now operating in the South Island. For instance, when a call was made at the headquarters of the service the consultant’s secretary was busy typing out history notes for the daughter of one of the club’s members. This was not an unusual assignment for the secretary as the club provides a typing service for its members and the last annual report records that some 300 letters were written for members. The service will also arrange housekeeping assistance where a farmer's wife becomes ill or arrange for his wife to visit a hairdresser in Canberra or Sydney. Scope To quote Mr Douglas, the service will do anything that its members want. This means that essentially the consultant goes to a service member mainly when he is requested to advise and help him. Membership of the service does not mean that the member will necessarily be given a detailed farm plan and budget. The member may only wish periodic advice, but where there is a demand for it Mr Douglas does prepare farm programmes and budgets both on a long-term and short-term basis. For one sizeable property a plan for a period of 20 years working towards the subdivision of the area into several blocks provides for capital expenditure of nearly £30,000 over the period to raise 'annual gross income ultimately by some £30,000. The plan embraces fodder conservation, subdivision, provision of water supply, stock shelter, and machinery, pasture improvement, a fertiliser programme and a stocking programme.

The club has also issued seasonal notes to its members touching on operations appropriate to the time of the year. An important feature of its operations has also been bulk purchasing of seed and veterinary preparations for its members. In five years the service’s trading has amounted to about £150,000. These goods are supplied to members on a cost plus freight basis with a 5s charge for every £lO worth of goods purchased to cover toll calls, etc. It is estimated that the saving to farmers by this procedure has amounted to about 20 per cent, or £30,000 over the five years, which would mean that members have saved themselves about £15,000 over and above the fees they have paid in the same period. The service fee is £3O for the first 1000 acres and £l5 for every additional 500 acres or part thereof up to 8000 acres, which is the maximum acreage on which a charge is calculated. Gains Members of the service have recorded some spectacular increases in production in recent years. One man with 6000 acres who was carrying 6000 sheep and 200 head of cattle and had a wool clip of 148 bales in 1950, is now running 11,000 sheep and about 1000 head of cattle and his wool clip has gone up to 400 bales. He is now breeding and selecting cattle on a largely weight gain basis with distinct success.

On a property of 4500 acres the wool clip this year averaged 271 b to the acre, compared with 141 b when the service began and on another property sheep numbers have been raised over the same period from 1000 to 1500 with the wool clip more than doubled. Still another member is carrying 2200 sheep and 300 head of cattle on 1050 acres and last year his Merino two-tooths clipped a notable 141 b of wool. His development has involved intensive subdivision and use of superphosphate. The service engages a flock classer and a good many of its members are fleece weighing as a basis for selecting sheep for retention in their flocks.

On. the pasture improvement side the last annual report of the service showed that seed purchases in the period to the value of £7OOO were the heaviest to date, with white clover and phalaris being the species in most demand and all classes of subterranean clover falling off in proportion to the increase in demand for perennial species. Just now Mr Douglas is seeking to secure more ',efficient utilisation of pastures already improved with more subdivision and management a vital factor. The district is not without

its problems. Footrot is unhappily fairly widely established and thistles are alsp in evidence on many properties. Aerial spraying and establishment of strongly competitive pasture species may, however, keep the thistle problem at bay. On his 1600-acre property four and a half miles out of Bombala the service chairman runs 3450 sheep—mainly Merinos with some Romney Merino and Border Merino ewes—and 274 head of Shorthorn cattle. Upwards of twothirds of his country is now in the equivalent of improved pasture with species including phalaris, perennial and short rotation ryegrass, crimson and white clover, subterranean clover, lucerne and cocksfoot.

Trials are now being made with strong winter-growing Brignoles cocksfoot and summer-growing Oregon and Demeter fescues with the idea of spreading the seasonal growth pattern. The service consultant, Mr Douglas, is also giving a practical demonstration of land improvement on 650 acres that he took up at Mila, about 13 miles outside Bombala, about five years ago. It was then carrying 700 sheep and 20 head of cattle. This summer—a growthy one —it carried 2700 sheep, including wethers bought in off the shears, without difficulty and some 1400 ewes will be going to the ram this autumn. The intention is to push ewe numbers to 2000 in five years’ time No cattle are being carried.

About a quarter of the farm has so far been sown to improved pasture—white clover, perennial ryegrass, short rotation ryegrass, red clover and cocksfoot—and the rest has been given superphosphate. In mid-April the clover on the property was looking a real picture.

By Contract All cultivation is done by contract and costs are kept to a minimum with his wife running the property during the week and Mr Douglas farming at week-ends. Annual gross income has been pushed up from £l5OO to £6500 and with low costs the return on capital is running at 13 or 14 per cent. Three years ago when Mr Douglas put down an air strip on the property 20 tons of fertiliser was spread. Now he and his neighbours are spreading 100 tons annually. In this and other ways farmers outside the service have been inspired by the example of service members.

Mr Douglas ultimately envisages that this sort of advisory organisation will have veterinarians, livestock instructors, agronomists and accountants and legal minds at its service to give every aspect of the farming operation the very best treatment.