This Young Man Has His Own Farm

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30811, 24 July 1965, Page 8

This Young Man Has His Own Farm

This month’s newsletter issued by the Canterbury Farm Training Council’s secretary, Mr D. H. Crabb, tells a good story about how one of the council’s cadets got established on a farm of his own.

The cadet went through the training scheme between 1953 and 1956. Part of his cadetship was spent on a mixed cropping and sheep farm where the wage was about £4 a week, but the cadet was prepared to accept this because he was getting firstclass training. In 1957 under a scholarship he went to Lincoln College taking the old eight months’ intensive course. At the end of this he went shearing until he accepted a job on a Southland sheep and cropping farm. Block He worked on this farm until September, 1958, when he saw that the Lands and Survey' Department were offering an undeveloped 650acre block for selection by ballot. He looked it over and having been through some farm budgets and farm assessments at Lincoln he was able to draw up a farm development programme and farm budget for the first four years of his occupancy. He was the only one to go before the committee, which looks over applicants, who did this and this must have helped his application for although he was only 21 years old he was allowed into the ballot with three others and was successful.

There were several provisions involved in the offering of this land. There would be a nominal rental — actually waived for the first few years. He was not allowed to build a residence on the property for four years and this meant that he had to live in a caravan for the first nine months until he was able to rent an unoccupied house a mile away. He had to develop 50 acres a year. The block was mostly rolling to steeply rolling country, well watered and covered in second-growth fern and bracken. It had been milled in the early 30’s but allowed to revert and had no fences except a boundary fence on one side with his only neigh-

bour—other boundaries of the property were with the Forest Service and were unfenced. The initial clearing was a contract crawler job, but after clearing the land could be cultivated with a wheel tractor. When 150 acres had been developed the State Advances Corporation was prepared to lend £12,500 for capital development and this of course was one of the golden pots at the end of the rinbow. The young farmer had to have a satisfactory amount of capital to cover the development for the first three years. He was fortunate in arranging personal loans and started off with about £2OOO. In the first year he brought on 110 ewes and developed his first 70 acres (contract clearing at about £5 an acre) and this went into swedes. Next year this went into pasture and a further 26 acres was developed. For the first four years about 1J acres of potatoes were also grown. The Lands and Survey Department had estimated that the country would carry two to three ewes to the acre, but he was able to improve on this and was actually running four to five ewes to the acre. By the end of the first threeyear period he had about 500 sheep and was able to convince the Lands and Survey Department and State Advances Corporation that the time was ripe for a development loan. In that year the young farmer was married. The loan was granted and further contract clearing and fencing were done and a house, woolshed, and cattle yards were built and more implements purchased. Since then development has gone on at a slow steady pace so that now about half the block is developed. The farm is carrying about 950 ewes, 300 hoggets and 30 to 40 cattle and it is becoming a working proposition. The undeveloped area is not being neglected. Burning off and aerial sowing and

topdressing has enabled it to be used for cattle. Mr Crabb says that three points the farmer had mentioned to him when he was talking about his progress might be of interest to cadets at present in the scheme. The prospective young farmer had to be determined and prepared to save all he could. When he had some capital and some years of training behind him he should look round for a block of land to invest it in—in this way with hard work and perhaps some luck his capital would increase with the increase in land value and should keep pace with the increase in land values on the next property he would purchase. The young farmer should look further afield than Canterbury when looking for land. He should spend a holiday touring Southland, the Te Anau area and the east coast and the middle of the North Island. He should inquire about land values and look at likely blocks —make it a real working holiday. "Perhaps this cadet was lucky in several instances but it does show how hard work and determination can see you through,” comments Mr Crabb. “I have not told you about the wage he had to live on to start with, the hard long hours spent on the tractor and the ' physically hard work involved in clearing the area and the number of times he nearly walked off.”