Southland scrub and fern give way to top pastures

Press, 26 January 1979, Page 8

Southland scrub and fern give way to top pastures

The Lands and Survey Department farms on a very extensive scale in Southland, notably the Mossbitrn and Te Anau districts. Its farming operations, involving 26 blocks totalling more than 80.000 hectares, involve a current annual budget of 56.2 M. LANCE EARLY visited the area recently and reports on the impressive—ami often spectacular—results being obtained.

Scrub, fern, rushes and tussocks are giving way to highly-productive pastures in western Southland. Unlike many other parts of New Zealand where production is making only nominal rises, this is an area where farming is expanding.

The large runs purchased by the Lands and Survey Department in the 1950 s and 1960 s are gradually being broken into conventional farmland. To an outsider, it is a project which in many respects is little short of spectacular. This is the principal area in the South Island now providing farms for landless young farmers. Centred in the Te Anau and Mossburn districts, much of the country was entirely in its native state; tussock-covered hills and valleys with swamps, as at Mossburn, or fern and scrub land, as at Te Anau.

Today, development is straight-forward to the field officers and farm managers. But this was not always the case. When the Lynwood block of 14,420 hectares was taken up in the 19505, the department carried out extensive cultivation. But in time there was a massive reversion to rushes, and recultivation, along with drainage, was necessary.

But with the establishment of aerial topdressing

and oversowing services, the department, with the Ministry of Agriculture, looked into an alternative method of pasture establishment. The technique they settled on was simple, and proved to be so effective that initial cultivation, except on heavy ground, has been long discarded. The practice today is to surface-sow both seed and fertiliser. This lifts the fertility, and in about four seasons, country typical of that now being brought into production, is supporting four stock units to the acre.

Grass seed (and cocksfoot) is coated with superphosphate, and the white and red clover is limecoated, as well as inoculated.

Seeding rates are 141 b bare weight to the acre — 41b of white clover, 1 lb of red clover, the balance being grass seed. Mr David Marshall, head of land development for the department in Southland considers one of the major benefits in coating the seed is the ballistic effect it gains — the seed, because of its doubling in weight, manages to penetrate the existing ground cover. He also considers that the key to success in establishing new pasture is correctly inoculated seed.

The inoculant must be fresh.

It was practical experience which emphasised this aspect, for in the early stages, some of the results were variable. The department conferred with the manufacturers of the inoculant and the suppliers of the seed. Today the seed for aerial sowing is prepared by a Christchurch firm, and when sowing operations are planned, every effort is made to keep delays to a minimum.

A cost comparison shows that by cultivation, pasture establishment costs $260 per hectare. Of this $176 is taken up in cultivation. For surface sowing the figure is $ll5, of which seed was valued at $4O and the fertiliser $55.

To give a complete coverage, the seed is sown in two applications and, if possible, in two directions. It is sown with 4cwt of super-phosphate in August. A futher 3cwt is flown on about January and a third application of 3cwt in July.

Maintenance dressings are applied at the rate of 3cwt a year.

In time the land is worked up for swedes, as required, and in the following year put back to pasture using a roller and seedbox.

This pasture, sown the second time round, is much higher producing than the

original pasture established on native cover. Excellent examples can be seen at this time of the year, particularly on the books surrounding Te Anau. Many of the paddocks this season .ire a sea of white clover. Like farmers in many areas of the South Island, the department's managers found they would have been in a position to support a lot more stock. On some of -the country near Te Anau, there, has been some reversion to fern, particularly where rocky outcrops are common, but Mr Marshall says that poses little problem. The answer lies in heavy follow-up stocking, along with annual topdressing. Similarly, there is little concern about the reappearance of scrub. Under continued stocking, it dies out, and those plants which persist are knocked down with a rotary slasher. Because of the winter climate, a high standard of accommodation is provided. The managers’ residences are usually built in brick, and cottages are also built in permanent materials. Wooden bungalows are to be found on some blocks, but generally, they are not regarded as adequate. The department maintains that in order to hold good labour, facilities in the house must be modern — “the farm works well if the kitchen works well.”