The rise and fall of Canty’s pasture seed export trade

Press, 4 March 1988, Page 22

The rise and fall of Canty’s pasture seed export trade

By

PAT PALMER,

a former plant breeder

with the D.S.LR.’s Crop Research Division, at j . j Lincoln.

It is good that pasture seed production is lightening the gloom for cropping farmers. But this is not a new thing as the reports may suggest to many readers. It was pasture seed which hoisted Canterbury farming out of the doldrums of the depression. At its peak in the late 1940 s and early 119505, pasture seed accounted for. two per cent of New Zealand’s exports. To compare in importance, present day exports would need to be $2OO million, not the $3O million growers and exporters are now proud of. The history of the rise and fall of the export of pasture seeds is interesting, and may have lessons now and for the future. The first settlers saved, sowed and sold seed off their pastures. "English” seed was still imported well into this century, and some leases still stipulate that land be sown in “good English grasses.” The “English” seed may well have been re-exports from Holland or Denmark. But by the 1870 s, “Akaroa” cocksfoot was well established in New Zealand, and became renowned worldwide. Chewings fescue from Southland and Hawke’s Bay ryegrass were other notable strains. But the ryegrass seed produced from the phos-

phate and clover deficient Canterbury' pastures, which only lasted one or two years, produced more seed than feed,; and did not persist in pastures. Most pasture seejd in commerce, hotably Irish, Danish and 'Dutch, 'produced similiarly ! short-lived _ plants. I 1 ’ Then in the first decades of this century, men like Cockayne, Hilgendorfland Levy got interested f in the genetic quality of New Zealand pasture | plants. By the 19205, [superior strains had been isolated, and by the 1930 s the “certification system”, developed largely j by'vJ. Hadfield, provided the means of multiplying? these strains and producing ; seed for customers with the best guarantee of genetic quality in the,world. ! A . Farm'ers, research" workers, advisers, seed mercha,'nts, seed dressing machinery makers, and operators of the times will recall the enthusiasm for excellence throughout the industry. Pasture seed production turned pasture into a cash crop deserving the beist treatment, particularly the lime and phosphate it had seldom

had before. [ i [ "Tagging” certified seed brought farm [ advisory officers on to Canterbury farms in numbers once undreamt of. This all proved to be the basis for “fat lambs off their mothers” in Canterbury. Gone were the days of one year ryegrass, ] two years hair grass, one year rape, wheat, etc. Permanent pastures had arrived in Canterbury. All this revolution, was exquisitely; timed, | | By 1945, war-ravaged Europe, and especially England, was ready to resow its pastures which had been ploughed for grain production. ' New Zealanders in Britain, notably Mac Cooper at [Durham University, Sandy Copland managing Lord Beaverbrook’s estates, and Jack Calder on [sabbatical from Lincoln, [convinced the British of the good value of our pasture seeds. These were i the years when pasture seeds grew to two per cent of New Zealand exports. Why did the industry decline? Basically we lost our quality advantage, not because our quality declined, but because we failed to keep ahead and

our competitors | caught U P: was also inevitable that we exported them the seeds of success ; of our own industry for them to use as the basis of theirs. But also we have failed to progress from our early lead. There is little convincing evidence: that our 1988 ryegrass ahd clover cultivars produce substantially more grass than our 1948 cultivars. In contrast, European cereal cultivars, which compete with our ryegrass as stock feed producers, are i twice as productive now as they were then. We have continued to produce strains suitable for pasture production in New Zealand, but only coincidentally suited for high pasture production in other countries! In many

markets they have been surpassed by their local breeders. We would have had more success in the market if we had treated pasture seed production as a worthwhile activity in its own right, and bred cultivars suitable for overseas markets in conjunction with overseas breeders.

Instead we regarded it merely as a servant of the New Zealand pastoral industry, and actively discouraged or even prohibited production of cultivars our clients preferred. Fears that growing foreign cultivars would somehow contaminate our local cultivars were advanced to justify this policy. They were almost certainly groundless. This attitude persists. We also failed to get into the lucrative amenity grass business.

Unlike the 1940 boom, the present upsurge in the value of our ryegrass is not primed by the large jump in technical excellence that our pasture seeds guaranteed in the 19405. But it should be used as a basis for getting into cultivars better suited to our customers’ needs if we hope it will continue. Perhaps new species of pasture plants from the Grasslands Division — such as prairie grass, chicory and plantain, might provide this impetus.