NEW ZEALAND PASTURES

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXVII, Issue 20595, 20 June 1930, Page 18

NEW ZEALAND PASTURES

HISTORY OF DEVELOPMENT. DR. A. H. COCKAYNE'S VIEWS. AN INTERESTING REPORT. No. I. The following is from a paper pro sented by Dr. A. 11. Cockayne, Assistant Director-General, Department of Agriculture, to tho Empire Farmers' Conference, held in Wellington:— During tho tour of tho Empire Farmers' Delegation in both islands of New Zealand the development of our farming systems must of necessity have been largely viewed with reference to British conditions and British traditions based on centuries of experience In this paper I wish to bring forward somo of tho main New Zealand viewpoints built on an extremely short agricultural history, hut ono which has undergone far more rapid evolutionary changes than would ordinarily he considered possible by any one from a country where agrioulturo has become stabilised. Less than a century ago New Zealand consisted mainly of four great types of country: — (1) Forest of varied and often very dense nature, belonging to types essentially different from those originally clothing great parts of Britain. (2) Scrub and heath lands, partly of a stablo nature, but mainly representing one of tho successional stages back to forest. (3) Largo areas of swamp land, the cover varying from fen vegetation to forest. (4) Open grassland, known as tussock grasslands, which had developed entirely in tho absence of any grazing animals, and which were essentially climatic in origin. Wet and Dry Areas. Roughly expressed, the wetter areas of New Zealand were covered in forest and the drier areas were in natural grassland. Known methods of cultivation and stocking were of no value in bringing into agricultural profit tho vast areas of forestclad country, so it was on tho open unforested country that development first took place, nnd, as theso areas occurred mainly in tho South Island, that portion of New Zealand showed in the earlier years the greatest advancement. Tho original farming community, recruited as it was with excellent British farming experience, rapidly adopted rotational practice on tho more fertile, easily ploughablo tussock grasslands, and depastured everincreasing flocks of Merino sheep on the natural tussock areas where topographical considerations precluded easy ploughing. To begin with, cereals and wool represented the only saleable commodities that did not reach immediate saturationpoint. and had it not been for two factors the agricultural development of New Zealand might have remained comparatively insignificant. Theso two factors were tho comparatively early discovery that a good seed-bed for the establishment of pastures of European grasses could be produced by felling and burning the forest, and "the later development of coldstorago processes, enabling meat, dairy produce and other perishable products to be exported. Turning Forests Into Pastures. Tho conversion of forest into grassland without the intervention of tho plough represents the first major development in tho evolution of New Zealand farming, and has resulted in over 12,000,000 acres of grassland replacing forest. The firestick, therefore, became tho real emblem of fanning progress in New Zealand for many years, rather than tho plough, although it was considered that tho majority of ploughable "bush-burn" country would finally como under some sort of rotational treatment whereby the production of fresh young grass would bo connected up with the production of annual crops, either of a cash-sale or animal-feeding type. For many years from 200,000 to 400,000 acres of forested country were annually burned and graSs seed sown on tho scarcely cooled ash Tho forest did not in all cases surrender to tho artificiallyproduced grass invader without a valiant struggle,'and a whole range of stocking and secondary-burning technique became developed to cope with tho efforts of forest to reassert itself. Until tho development of tho freezing industry the artificially-produced bushburn grasslands nnd the natural grasslands were essentially used for wool-pro-duction. Meat in tho quantities in which it could be produced was unsaleable; the value of a carcase was measured in terms of tho tallow that it could yield, and thus arose the boiling-down establishments of both islands. Over the greater part of the bush-burn grassland long-wools—firstly Lincoln and later Romney—became tho dominant breed. Tho rise of tho Romney coincided to a certain extent with tho gradual fall in nutritive value of the bushburn pastures as they passed through successional changes tending to a lower standard. Natural and Artificial Pastures. So far as tho mountainous natural tussock grasslands ' aro concerned, their history has been one of gradually diminishing fertility, and as their area is largo —over 14 million acres—and their production and value low, they can be viewed with our present knowledge as probably a potentially decreasing asset in connection with farming, unless better feeding types of vegetation can bo established on them at a nominal cost. Investigation in this direction, however, has not been by any moans encouraging. On tho other hand, it is far otherwise with tho sown grasslands of tho country, which, with their companion annual stock-feeding crops (themselves now steadily decreasing in proportion), comprise somo 18 million acres. This area of sown grassland at the present time is only slowly extending in comparison with tho bush-burn days, as most of the virgin country still to bo won to payable grass is mainly almost of a submarginal character, particularly during eras of falling pr'ees. Money Retunn from Pasture. The main production from this 1U million acres consists of meat, wool and but-ter-fat, and by-products, such as hides, pelts, etc., connected therewith. Tho sown grasslands of tho Dominion aro responsible for an annual output of roundly 250,000 tons of meat (mutton and lamb 200,000 tons, beef 30,000 tons, pork, 20,000 tons), 70.000 tons of wool, and 140,000 tons of butter-fat. Brought to a per-ncre basis this means about 301b. of, meat, 91b. of wool, and 171b. of butter-fat. With normal prices the present annual value of grassland products exceeds £50.000,000, a figure that could quite easily be doubled by better appreciation and application of scientific grassland-man-agement. Tho value of such management and all that it stands for is fast becoming recognised not only by ihe farming community, but also by all commercial, political and scientific interests.

Grassland products iti Hie shape of theso saleable commodities, primarily elaborated by the cow and the breeding ewe, represent in New Zealand farming the dominant features of production.