DUKE OF EDINBURGH’S INTEREST IN PRIMARY PRODUCTION

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 94, Issue 2, 15 February 1957, Page 114

DUKE OF EDINBURGH’S INTEREST IN PRIMARY PRODUCTION

ROYAL VISIT

T TIS Royal Highness the Duke of Edinburgh was emphatic in his speech at a State luncheon in Wellington during his four days in New Zealand in December that he was in the country to see what he himself wanted to see. Two afternoons of the four days were occupied with visiting and seeing closely activities connected with primary production. During his inspection of a meat works, a freezing company handling dairy produce, a refrigerated ship loaded with chilled and frozen meat and dairy produce for export to Britain, a town-supply dairy farm, and an agricultural aviation demonstration the Duke’s lively interest in all he saw and his readiness to talk to and question those he met in factory or on farm confirmed, his statement that he wanted to see where the food came from; to see the timber industry, production from New Zealand’s forests, and development of the reservoirs of power and of farm production. These things, said the Duke, were the basis of the economy of New Zealand and the main source of her prosperity. They were important to New Zealand and to the United Kingdom, as the economies of the two countries were closely linked.

A FEW weeks before the Duke’s visit the leader of the United Kingdom delegation to the Seventh International Grassland Congress in this country, Dr. William Davies, Director of the Grassland Research Institute, Hurley, England, had reminded those attending the annual conference of the New Zealand Grassland Association at Canterbury Agricultural College, Lincoln, of the stricture on British agriculture delivered

by Professor M. McG. Cooper, a New Zealander who is Dean of Agriculture at the University of Durham, England, that the land in Britain was being “farmed at half-cock”. Dr. Davies added to Professor Cooper’s remark his own opinion that “grassland production all over the world is nowhere near potential. A few of the very best pastures might be good and near potential, but the average pasture, whether in temperate or tropical regions, is even today being farmed at what ‘Mac’ Cooper has called halfcock, and may well be no better than quarter-cock”. Farming, and the utilisation of the products of farming, at full-cock must have been the impression the Duke gained from what he saw here. Management of the dairy farm he visited was based on maximum use of grass growth by grazing animals, spread of pasture production by the use of irrigation, the electric fence, and close subdivision, and conservation of surplus pasture by the making of hay and silage. This was on fiat river silt country. That improvement of hill country is at least being attempted at full-cock, and might even be rated a full-scale offensive, was shown by the Aviation Industry Association’s display of aerial agriculture

at the foot of the Port Hills near Christchurch. Meat Works Visit The meat works of the Gear Meat' Co. Ltd., Petone, is on the northeastern foreshore of Wellington Harbour, a stone’s throw from the beach on which the New Zealand Company’s first settlers landed from the United Kingdom in 1840. Today the works is one of 6 meat export works whose production is shipped from the port of Wellington and one of the 32 in the Dominion slaughtering livestock for the export meat trade. Livestock slaughtered at works using the port of Wellington in 1955-56 totalled 3,225,000, comprising 149,000 cattle, 127,000 calves, 823,000 sheep, 2,100,000 lambs, and 26,000 pigs. Complete utilisation of the animal carcass that has gradually become possible through the introduction of refrigeration in 1882 and subsequent improvements in processes at meat works was the theme of the operations of the Gear Company’s works shown to the Duke. His tour started with the live penned animals awaiting slaughter and ended with by-products such as meals and fertilisers, casings, and processed pelts.

‘•Some people may not think going to a meat works is pleasure”, the Duke had told his audience at the State luncheon before his Petone visit; “but I am interested in going to a meat works and what interests me is pleasure and that is fun”. In a white coat and goloshes with his trouser cuffs turned up the Duke was obviously keenly interested in everything he was shown and immediately, by his readiness to stop and discuss with the nearest worker the job he was doing, established the friendly and informal atmosphere that characterised his tour. Aspects of the operation of the works in which the Duke seemed particularly interested were the “learners’ chain” that prepared workers for engagement on the main killing chain, the speed and efficiency

of which impressed him; the system of tagging carcasses as they moved on the chain to identify ownership of different lots; the inspection and grading of carcasses; and the pre-cutting and pre-packaging of meat broken down into retail cuts.

Dairy Produce Cool Store

In the cool store of the Co-operative Dairy Producers’ Freezing Co. Ltd. on the Wellington waterfront the Duke saw the reception for storage and grading of butter, cheese, and milk powder manufactured in the Wellington Province by the 17 butter factories and 26 cheese factories whose production is exported from the port of Wellington. Butter and cheese graded for export at the stores in the 1955-56 season totalled: Butter, for export, 11,400 tons; for local consumption, 3900 tons; cheese, 11,200 tons; whey butter, 400 tons.

The Duke inspected the grading and chemical analysis of dairy produce and inquired closely into the maintenance of standards of quality.

Two small loaf cheese manufactured at the Dalefield Co-operative Dairy Factory and a small box of butter made by the Cheltenham Co-operative Dairy Company were presented to the Duke.

A Canterbury Dairy Farm

High production in one of the lower rainfall areas (26in. per annum) was exemplified in the farm of Mr. C. J. McFadden, Belfast, Canterbury, which was visited by the Duke. The property, of about 180 acres, is well sheltered and closely subdivided to enable maximum use of pastures by the herd of grade Friesians producing 70,000 gallons of milk a year for town supply. Ninety cows are milked in winter and 78 in summer. The farm is on flat river silt country and irrigation water from the neighbouring Waimakariri River is used by both the border dike and spray methods.

After the Duke had inspected the standard internal race milking shed with its electrically operated 5-cow milking machines and chilling unit for holding of milk he toured the farm and saw the pumping equipment for raising irrigation water from the main river diversion race to the farm race and the storage lake on the farm. The herd was inspected in one of the many small paddocks that, with the central access road considered essential for the effective operation of a dairy unit, enable maximum utilisation of pasture and an even spread of fertility round the farm.

Mr. McFadden discussed with the Duke the general farm management. Grazing of the ryegrass-white clovertimothy pastures is controlled with the electric fence and the Duke saw the stacking of baled hay made from saved pasture.

After inspection of the irrigation system the Duke returned to the milking shed where the herd had been driven in for the afternoon milking. The quiet, efficient handling of the cows in the bails by the non-stripping method that enables the milking of the national herd of 2 million dairy cows by a surprisingly small labour force was well illustrated and the Duke showed keen interest in shed routine and the provision for hygienic operation of the machines.

Agricultural Aviation

That the Duke was aware of the greatly expanded use of aircraft in New Zealand for agricultural work was evident in his inquiry of the Prime Minister, Mr. S. G. Holland, on his arrival about the agricultural aviation demonstration arranged in Palmerston North to coincide with the Seventh International Grassland Congress in November. A special display for the Duke was arranged by the same sponsors, the Aviation Industry Association of New Zealand, an organisation representing , nearly all the farm work companies.

Appropriately the demonstration of aerial methods of land improvement that have achieved astonishing results on hill country in the past few years was arranged on part of the original Cashmere estate, near Christchurch, founded by Sir John Cracroft Wilson, who with his large-scale drainage work on 1000 acres of hitherto despised swamp that he took over in 1859 could claim a place among the first notable land improvers in the country.

A strong wind on the afternoon of the display necessitated the shifting of the demonstration from the Cracroft Wilson estate to a neighbouring airstrip on the property of Mr. E. G. Robertson, where most of the types of fixed-wing aircraft used in agricultural

work and mechanical loading equipment were drawn up with owners and operators beside them for the Duke’s inspection.

The Duke’s interest in commercial aviation was emphasised by his urging the need for a strong, modern, and efficient mercantile air service on leaders of the British aircraft industry in his address in 1954 to the Royal Aeronautical Society. As he passed along the line of aircraft and discussed with each pilot the special features of his machine he seemed particularly interested in the two British machines designed especially for agricultural work. The other aircraft demonstrated were two adapted British machines and four American planes designed for the work.

For about half an hour the small paddock airstrip and a nearby hillside were the scene of continuous takeoffs, fertiliser dropping and spraying, and landings in a concentrated and striking demonstration of the capabilities of the machines and their pilots.

The Duke with a small official party in the centre of the paddock was an obviously appreciative spectator and only a flurry of heavy rain drove him from the airstrip.

Rain threatened during much’ of the Duke’s agricultural engagements; it stopped the loading of the Ruahine with export produce that the Duke was to have seen at a Wellington wharf and curtailed the aerial agricultural show near Christchurch. Those who appreciate its value in the pastoral production of this country call it well distributed. Sir Bruce Levy described it to Grassland Congress visitors as “the life-stream of the turf”. One feels sure that the Duke would be prepared to accept its falling during his visit as necessary for his full appreciation of the agricultural — G.J.N.