FARMERS RELUCTANT TO CHANGE IN CHILE

Press, Volume CXV, Issue 33941, 6 September 1975, Page 17

FARMERS RELUCTANT TO CHANGE IN CHILE

Many older farmers in the far south of Chile were reluctant to make radical changes in their farming after putting up with years of political turmoil. But that might change under the present Chilean Government, a Chilean farmer, Mr H. J. Mac Leary, said

r He said the changes could » come if farmers near the, '■ Straits of Magellan came up' '(with schemes which war-i ranted financial support. i Mr Mac Leary studied atj {'Lincoln College and married • a girl from the Christchurch! district. His mother was also; ■ from Canterbury. L He runs two farms, grazing i j sheep and cattle on about J 11.000 hectares. He also has ;a sawmill. >1 Earlier this winter, he was lone of a group of Chileans

•who purchased 137 stud i Corriedales in New Zealand. Mr Mac Leary said he! jhoped that farmers could co-! < operate enough to develop anl j efficient marketing system.; and a scheme for improving' I farming facilities, such as (outdated freezing works. “For a start, we cannot buy fertiliser because it is soj expensive,” he said. “Cartage! is our biggest problem. The; country would change over-’ night if it had fertiliser.” Although past Chileanl

governments had offered no (financial support to the (region’s farmers, that might (change. Mr Mac Leary said. I It would be up to the farmers |to co-operate. “I’ve got to be perfectly (straight—l couldn’t stick Salvador Allende.” he said of the former leader who was (killed in a military coup. I “He would have taken our | places away in the end.” Mr Mac Leary said it was ( “a challenge, and better than (being spoon-fed.” He said that he was always ( struck by the number of facilities New Zealand farm(ers had, “from the grocer I right through to the marketI ing of their wool.” He was constantly surprised at “how much easier ; it is for the farmer to operate here, and the innovations |to make work easier.” I Twice a year, Mr Mac Leary (has to move stock from ' winter to summer high (country and back again, a (trip that takes 12 days each way. Stock are taken from his Isla Riesco farm, northwest of the city of Punta Arenas, to the mainland, in a barge. Of Scottish descent, Mt Mac Leary is a third generation member of the family! to live in Chile. His grand-! parents went out to work on I sheep stations. Mrs Mac Leary is the daughter of Mr and Mrs W.j S. Coop, of Port Levy.