Economic Service head to retire soon

Press, 23 June 1978, Page 14

Economic Service head to retire soon

Mr F. L. (Frank) Ward, who retires at the end of August from the directorship of the Economic Service of the Meat and Wool Boards, of which he was a foundation member, can derive some satisfaction from the reliance placed on the Service’s figures by a great many farming and associated organisations and the fact that it has been able to influence agricultural policy planning to quite a considerable extent.

He joined the service at the time that it was set up under Mr R. H. Bevin, who like himself had previously been on the staff of Lincoln College. That was about 28 years ago.

He recalls that the two boards decided to establish their own information service after the Royal Commission into the Sheep Industry had commented that it had experienced considerable difficulty in getting .:liable information on the sheep industry and the boards themselves in negotiations with the British Government over bulk sale and purchase of meat and wool had found that when they went to the negotiating table they did not always have all the information that they might have liked to have had.

Mr Ward credits the late Sir Walter Mulholland as being “the father” of the Economic Service. Mr Bevin had told the boards that the best way to set up the organisation they wanted was to carry out a survey of farmers throughout the country to provide factual information, and this was still being done, said Mr Ward.

Farmers are selected at random for this survey from farms of certain types and flock sizes and experienced field officers—at first two and now eight —collect this information from them on their farms. Naturally. Mr Ward says that they could not function without the co-oper-ation of the farmers concerned.

During his period in charge of the service it has gone in to computerisation of information in a manner to suit their special requirements and this has meant that it is possible to lift out any piece of information that they have collected. Thus, he said that if someone wanted to find Out how much fuel was used on New Zealand farms, as they recorded the cost to each individual farmer in their survey of running his machinery and equipment it was possible to get some idea of their fuel consumption, and if it was believed that their survey was representative of the whole industry it would be possible to get a figure for the whole industry.

When they imposed j checks on their information against such known things as total sheep and I cattle numbers in the i country, they found that the survey matched up | very well indeed. The boards were deservi ing of credit, he said, in j that they had given the • Service a lot of freedom I and did not interfere with i their economic findings, I and the information they collected was available to ■ all who wanted it and was I used by the whole ini dustry, including FederI ated Farmers, stock and station firms, banks, uni’ versities and Government departments, who had free access to it with the only stipulation being that no individual farmers’ records were made available to anyone. The only person who knew the name of a farmer providing information was the officer collecting the information and he put a code number on it.

By allowing the Service to make this information available widely. Mr Ward said that the boards were 1 providing a service for the ■ whole industry. Mr Ward believes that it is the presentation of the farm data which is the most important part of the operation. The information must be factual, readily understood and

presented clearly and in a way that it can be used by the industry. One of the most significant ways in which the survey data is used, he believes, is to illustrate the impact of levels of farmer spending or reinvestment in farming on subsequent production and performance by the industry. There were some, he said, who held that climatic factors could transcend the effects of investment or spending levels, but he did not believe that to be so, as if climatic difficulties, like a drought, followed on a period when spending had been reasonably high then be believed that the effect of the climatic conditions would not be so great. Of an essentially practical turn of mind, Mr Ward has been a keen advocate of the need to improve per head performance of livestock and he says that considerable economic advantage is to be gained from such a policy. In recent years he says that quite a lot of progress has been made in this respect compared with the preceding period, but there was still room to improve quite a lot yet. However he does not deny that the ideal situation is to increase stock numbers also, so long as performance does not suffer, if levels of inputs are sufficiently high. He believes that there is plenty of potential remaining in New Zealand farming — the question was. really how to get it out economically. Mr Ward has also over the years placed considerable emphasis on the relationship between fertiliser usage and farm production. As a result of observation of a lot of figures over a long period of time he believes that unless fertiliser consumption is nationally at a level of about 20kg per stock unit there will be an adverse effect on over-all production and performance.

This may mean that 15, 16 or 17kg should be used in parts of Canterbury and up to 27kg in Northland, and investigations had shown too although other materials were used also in the dairy industry the 20kg was also not very far away for that industry too.

Governments had recognised the importance of fertiliser in that in periods when they wished to boost production they adjusted the fertiliser price and also assisted with spreading costs to maintain or improve production. Generally speaking he believes that fertiliser is not wasted on New Zealand farms, but developments in the area of mycorrhizal fungi or in other areas that offered improved efficiency of use of an expensive item would be welcomed. Fertiliser losses did occur through leaching and also through elements being locked up in the soil, and he would recommend that research in these areas should be given increased emphasis. It was sometimes suggested, said Mr Ward, than in good times farmers applied more fertiliser in order to reduce their tax, but if they grew more grass because of fertiliser use they were generally reluctant not to bring in more stock to eat it. Mr Ward certainly does not see the sort of assistance that the Government has given the farmer this year as being “hand outs.” He notes that unlike other sectors of the community, the farmer is not protected against increases in costs and inflation and

what had been, done for the farmer on this occasion could be likened to a wage increase or a cost of living allowance — it was an injection of money to redress the balance — and the likely result was that when balanced against increases in costs which the farmer was likely to have to face it would probably only about hold the line — in other words increased income would be about offset by increased costs. However, he believed that it was a realistic approach to farmers’ problems and should give them more confidence with some safeguards as far as their future operations were concerned. In the past he said that it was the overseas price for farm products that determined the profitability or otherwise of farming and provided the motiation to reinvest in the industry. But the situation was now very different. “On and off farm costs”(the costs involved i.i production, processing and transport) had reached such critical proportions

and these together with industrial problems had almost more impact on the farmer than the level of overseas prices. He sees a need for all involved in servicing farmers to limit their demands and absorb some of their own costs and this he believes is one of the most urgent areas requiring investigation. There was also a great need for good sound practical information about farming to drive home the importance of factors affecting production and thereby vital export income.

The son of a Marlborough farmer, Mr Ward will be returning to his home area to retire — he is planning to live in Blenheim. An attraction is also that he has a daughter married to a farmer in the district.

A former student of Nelson College he had eight years experience as a farm worker before starting a course at Massey College in 1939 which was interrupted by war service. He went overseas with the First Echelon of the 2nd New Zealand Expeditionary Force and was wounded in Greece and returned to New Zealand at the end of 1943. In 1944 he completed a diploma of sheep farming at Massey and in the following year did the diploma in valuation and farm management course at Lincoln, in which he was the gold medallist. From 1946 until he joined the Economic Service he was on the lecturing staff at the college and was particularly asassociated with short courses for former servicemen interested in entering farming and was latterly in charge of these courses. Mr Ward puts his experience with these men, who had mostly had some previous experience in farming, as one of the most interesting and satisfying things he has done, and he comments in having met many of them since that very few indeed failed to make the grade. This was due in part to the effort made after the war to give people going into farming the right background and ensuring that their financial arrangements and the farm that they took up meant that they had a reasonable opportunity of succeeding in normal circumstance. Mr Ward thinks that the influx of these people into farming probably provided, for a short period at least, a great stimulus to production, and he believes that a similar injection of young people today could well have a similar effect. This is why he is keen on what he calls "the quick settlement procedure" being applied to farm settlement. This would involve the Government in purchase of farms in fairly good general condition which could be split up and settled in a reasonably short period of time. Sometimes the bigger farms do not sell as readily as the smaller ones, he says, and for that reason they could be good properties to buy for this exercise. He is encouraged to see that the Government has provided a small amount of money in the Budget for the purchase of land for quick settlement. From 1950 when he joined the service until 1967 Mr Ward was a field

officer stationed in Christ-" church, and in the final two years in Christchurch he was the senior district officer in the service.

He took a special interest in South Island high country run management and published a number of papers on the subject. He holds that in dealing with these extensive properties care has to De taken that development and intensification are not carried too far because of the higher costs associated with these. He believes that high country development needs to be of a strategic nature designed primarily to improve feeding levels of young stock in view of the lifetime impact on the production from the flock as a whole. Ewe flock numbers may have to be kept at a level where maximum lambing percentages and satisfactory wool weights are obtained with the balance of carrying capacity being available for wethers, with their higher wool production and lower maintenance costs, or in cattle on suitable properties. In his research Mr Ward showed that for every 10 per cent increase in the proportion of breeding ewes in high country flocks there was a reduction of just under 0.5 kg per head in wool weight over the whole flock, so that the benefits from having more lambs, even with a lower lambing percentage from greater ewe numbers. Had to be balanced against the increased income from wool and lower flock maintenance costs with wethers. In his 111 years as director of the' Service, Mr Ward has been closely involved in farming industry planning at national level and has served on many economic and review committees. The industry will miss him, as a man of integrity with a deep sympathy for and understanding of farming and farmers. His standing in the industry has been high. But “anything to do with farming” is among his hobbies and he is obviously hoping to maintain his interest in the industry in his retirement. Mr Ward will be continuing his association with Lincoln College, as since 1974 he has been a member of the college council representing graduandes and diploma holders. He has, however, recently retired after 20 years on the executive of the old students’ association, of which he was Dominion president in 1971 and 1972.