First Demonstration Station Selected

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29910, 25 August 1962, Page 6

First Demonstration Station Selected

The first of a series of demonstration runs has been selected in the South Island high country under a scheme sponsored by the Tussock Grasslands and Mountain Lands Institute. The first run is Rhoborough Downs, of 19,000 acres, near Lake Pukaki, in the Mackenzie Country. Under the scheme not only will methods of improvement linked with soil conservation be demonstrated but one of the primary objectives of the project is to show the costs involved and likely returns obtained from improvement and associated adjustments in management. This should remove uncertainty about improvement schemes from the minds of runholders.

It is also intended to use the knowledge of all agencies working in the high country in the scheme—in other words to ensure that the best possible brains are brought to bear on the problems involved.

Though it is intended that financial assistance available through the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council should be used, it is hoped Shat special assistance may be available in this case to expedite development processes so that faster progress may be made than in norma! circumstances and earlier results wiU thus be available. A fundamental aspect of the whole project is to keep runholders closely in touch with progress in their own and the national interest.

In the early stages of this project the Tussock Grasslands and Mountain Lands Institute approached the Department of Agriculture, Lands and Survey Department, the Waitaki Catchment Commission, and the Mackenzie branch of Federated Farmers to familiarise them with the idea of the scheme and to ensure the co-opera-tion of representatives in the area in the details of the scheme. At the same time the assistance of the Soil Bureau, the Grasslands Division qf the D.5.1.R., and the economics section of the Department of Agriculture was also sought. As farmers watching the progress of demonstration projects will be particularly interested in the financial aspects, the economics section of the department in collaboration with the runholder will undertake financial recording. The economic service of the Meat and Wool Boards because of their interest in this part of tlie country, will also be kept in touch with the programme and their advice will be sought. Similarly, the collaboration of the Forest Service will be sought in matters relating to tree planting and noxious animal control.

To select the first run and work out and supervise a five-year programme of development for it, a committee has been formed, including Mr J. I. Innes, of Haldon station, in the Mackenzie Country, who is chairman of the Mackenzie branch of Federated Farmers and a member of the high country committee of Federated Farmers. Mr R. V. Maxwell, of Kurow. who is chief soil conservator of the Waitaki Catchment Commission, Mr

H. M. Sievwright, of Timaru. who is pastoral lands officer of the Lands and Survey Department in the area from the Rangitata to the Hawkdun range, Mr D. G. Reynolds, farm advisory officer of the Department of Agriculture at Fairlie, and Mr J. G. Hughes, management officer of the Tussock Grasslands and Mountain Lands Institute.

In selecting a run, £he committee has been guided by a series of general principles set out by the institute. These include that the runholder should be enterprising, interested in development, and willing to cooperate and allow results to be publicised, that the property should be representative as far as possible of other properties in a major area, it should be capable of development, and the runholder should be able to contribute a reasonable share to the cost of work envisaged. These requirements mean that many properties for one reason or another may not be eligible for consideration. The committee initially reduced to three properties those likely to be suitable for the demonstration. and last Saturday after the completion of further inquiries it announced its selection of Rhoborough Downs at a meeting of the Mackenzie branch of Federated Farmers. This propertv is one of those in the Twizel river catchment control scheme of the Waitaki Catchment Commission, and a land inventory survey has been made of the hill country parts of these properties and a land capability map is being prepared. It is now hoped that pedologists of the Sol] Bureau and the staff of the Waitaki Catchment Commission will complete the survey and soil mapping of this property. Reports on the property will also be sought from the Geological Survey, the Grasslands Division of the D.5.1.R.. the economics section of the Department of Agriculture and the sheep and wool instructor of the Department of Agriculture. Mr Hughes will work with the runholder in drawing up a report on the history of the management of the property, the present programme, the runholders’

ideas on development and physical features' of the property not included in the inventory survey. Members of the committee wherever possible will accompany survey teams and when all reports are available they will each be given a copy and they will then proceed to prepare their own programme for development of the property. Subsequently they will meet together with the runholder to reach agreement on principles, methods and sequence, of a five-year development programme. The detailed programme for the property will then be prepared by Mr Maxwell, as for soil conservation run proposals. with the assistance of Mr Hughes. Subsidy rates will be proposed on the basis of those applying for standard run conservation plans. These rates for increasing production and conserving the soil generally range from £1 for £4 to £1 for £l, with provision for a higher rate in extreme cases. While it is desired to finance the demonstration runs with subsidies available to the average farmer, some special assistance may be suggested to speed the progress of development for demonstration purposes. The programme for the property when completed will be submitted to the Waitaki Catchment Commission and the Soil Conservation and Ravers Control Council for approval and it will also go to the institute.

Reasons Discussing the reasons for the selection of the Mackenzie as the site of the first demonstration run. Mr Hughes said this week that a s;art had to be made somewhere and the Mackenzie was the centre of a strong branch of Federated Farmers that could be expected to take a lively interest in the project, and further of the local Catchment Commission, Lands and Survey Department and Department of Agriculture officers involved in the details of the scheme two were engaged full time in the high country and the third spent a considerable part of his time in this region Mr Hughes said that close to the run selected the Grasslands Division was initiating a series of trials to determine the maintenance requirements for fertiliser on this country, a matter of first rate importance to runholders undertaking development, and it was hoped to translate these findings on a run scale on Rhoborough Downs. The Grasslands Division was also undertaking trials with inoculation of clovers and lucerne in this region. As soon as the programme for the first run was drawn up. Mr Hughes said, it was hoped that it would be poc.tble to proceed with proposals for demonstration runs in other areas.'