Boost To Farming From The Skies

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30947, 31 December 1965, Page 9

Boost To Farming From The Skies

It can be claimed that aerial farming in New Zealand contributes at least £3om a year in gross production as well as improving land to the extent of £l9sm, according to Mr D. A. Campbell, chief soil conservator of the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council and chairman of the advisory committee on agricultural aviation, in a bulletin entitled “The Sky’s the Limit,” published by the council.

A foreword by Mr A. E. Clark, chairman of the council, says that this evaluation of the part played by aircraft in the improvement of the pasture cover on the hill country of New Zealand has been written to meet a request to the author from the Soil Conservation Society of America. Mr Campbell notes that arising out of the passing of the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Act in 1941 he was faced with the problem of developing a soil conservation programme to combat the alarmingly severe soil erosion and flooding problems that gave rise to the Act The pattern of land use in the first 100 years of occupation in New Zealand, he said, had wrought convulsive changes in the dominantly hilly landscape. The sombre green of the previously forested hills of the North Island had assumed the jaundiced hues of poor danthonia pastures and scars of sheet, scree and slip erosion. The warm golden hues of tussock country, regularly blackened by fire, had assumed the anaemic hues of scab weed, screes and sheeteroded, dead earth on landscapes in Marlborough and Otago that were almost as barren as the moon. “It became increasingly obvious that the necessary vigorous protective and productive pastures could only be obtained by topdressing with phosphate and oversowing with clover to initiate the

. necessary fertility - building - spiral,” says Mr Campbell, i “As the wholesale distribution t of phosphate and clovers on . unploughable hill country j could only proceed slowly by . existing hand-sowing methods > practical aerial alternatives . had to be investigated.” Adopting Mr Campbell’s . proposals the Soil Conserva- , tio<n Council organised and ; financed the original aerial . topdressing and seeding trials ’ and demonstrations 'in 1948- ’ 49 which were undertaken by ; the Ministry of Works and the ' Royal New Zealand Air ! Force. L Among the pioneer work ’ in aerial farming, Mr Campbell notes that the Brazier ! Brothers of Airwark, Christ--1 church, proved on the Port 1 Hills, that Tiger Moths carry- ; ing a third of a ton load ■ could make three-minute top- ’ dressing sorties from farm ; strips . . . The aerial top- ’ dressing fleet grew rapidly I to one of more than 300 Tiger 1 Moths which were acquired i cheaply and did yoeman ser- ■ vice until they were graduI ally replaced by heavier mod- ’ era machines carrying half to • one ton loads on average, al- ■ though a few carry three to I six tons. In 15 years the in- . dustry had grown to one of 36 operators employing 200 . pilots and 500 other staff and . using 240 aicraft and equip- . ment worth upwards of £3m. . “In over 13m topdressing, weed spraying, seeding, rabbit poisoning, insect killing and : supply dropping flights to > date this new agricultural task

force has completely altered the perspective of problems of 15 years ago and is rapidly changing the face of the landscape. With new green, clover-rich pastures it is healing the scars of erosion, minimising the rate of run-off and reducing flooding as well as enhancing production.” Seven million tons of phosphate have been spread to date including 850,000 tons last year, more than 300.000 tons of lime, nearly 9000 tons, of clover and grass seed, 58,000 tons of rabbit baits I and 64,000 tons of chemicaL formulations for weed and in-! sect control and upwards of 10.000 tons of fencing and other supplies have been dropped. The cost to farmers of material distributed has been about £lom to date.

•city and production at meat and wool attributable to aortal fanning, Mr Campbell said that m the first 12 years of the use of these practices beef cattle and sheep populations increased by SO per eent Since the previous 50 per increase had taken place over a period of 48 yean aerial farming had made a big contribution to increasing the tempo of progress. Since the greater portion of sheep and cattle were carried on hill country and aerial topdressing was confined to hill country and accounted for more than half of the topdresaing done in New Zealand, it could be claimed that it was responsible for at least half of the extra one and a half million cattle and 20 million sheep carried since 1948. Translated into equivalent annual output at £2.3 a sheep equivalent and improvement of land (on the basis that enough land to carry one sheep is worth £l5) it could be claimed that aerial farming contributed at least £3om a year in gross production aa well as improving the land to the extent of £l9sm. On the basis of the small sample of farms referred to earlier, Mr Campbell said that indications were that the hill country alone was capable of carrying more sheep than the total carried in the country today (50m). At this rate New Zealand would have to cater for a sheep population of 100 m in the 1970 -

As the most practical way of evaluing the contribution made by aerial farming was on typical farms, a questionnaire had been circulated through operators in the aviation industry to their progressive clients. Records of the performance on each of 20 medium-sized hill country farms in 15 counties since they began aerial farming had been summarised. In area these farms averaged 2400 acres and 1706 acres had been topdressed. In nine years 10.2 cwt of superphosphate an acre was used and lime application averaged 2.4 cwt an acre, clover seed 21b an acre and additional fencing 0.14 chains an acre. For this outlay ewe numbers had increased two fold, other sheep 2.7 times, breeding cows 2.5 time sand other cattle 3.1 times, so that stock altogether had increased 2.5 times, and likewise wool output had increased three times, fat lambs 3.6 times, fat cattle 5.3 times and store cattle 2.5 times.

This challenging situation was matched by the new tempo of growth given to fertility building by aircraft Over 15 years the average annual increase in phosphate distributed had been 50,000 tons and if present trends continued more than 1.2 m tons a year would be distributed by 1970 (in fact this was the approximate capacity of the present fleet of aircraft) and 2m tons by 1978-80.

Looking at the gross harvest of increased carrying cap-