Maori Farming at Its Best

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 99, Issue 5, 16 November 1959, Page 459

Maori Farming at Its Best

By

A. V. ALLO,

Farm Advisory Officer,' Department of Agriculture, Tauranga, and judge of the 1958 competition for the Ahuwhenua trophy for Maori farmers

MAORI farming at its best is seen during inspection of properties IVI to determine prizewinners in the annual competition for the Ahuwhenua trophy, open to farmers on Maori land development schemes. Some are units of development blocks capable of providing a settler with a good income from the start, but other competitors had taken over run-down properties and were developing them partly through finance obtained from the Maori Affairs Department and partly out of farm income. Under such circumstances development is much slower, demanding a great deal of hard work and financial sacrifice before the farm attains a stage of development comparable to that of a unit settled as part of a development block.

The type of work being done by young Maori farmers today is well exemplified in the outlines which follow of farming on the properties of Messrs T. Haeata and W. J. Swinton, winner and second prizewinner in the 1958 competition.

The late Lord Bledisloe, who as Governor-General of New Zealand, in 1932 presented the Ahuwhenua trophy for annual competition among Maori farmers on Maori land development schemes. This was only one of many directions in which Lord Bledisloe showed practical interest in New Zealand agriculture, which continued up until the time of his death, 23 years after the expiry of his term as Governor-General.

The Ahuwhenua trophy competition highlights the efforts of Maori farmers and shows that Maoris, if given encouragement and the opportunity, make just as good farmers as Europeans.

Mr T. Haeata’s Farm on Mangakino Block

MR T. HAEATA is farming a most attractive property of 133 acres that was originally part of the Mangakino development block. He has been settled on his property for five years. Though it is true that Mr Haeata has not had the struggle that other competitors have had to get himself established, he deserves full credit for the use he has made of his opportunities. There are 122 acres in grass, subdivided into 17 paddocks, some of which need further subdivision. There is a well planned layout embodying the use of internal races, and when these are completed the property will be very easy to handle. The pastures are quite good, with white clover, cocksfoot, cowgrass, and perennial

ryegrass the dominant species. Yorkshire fog has invaded some paddocks, the result possibly of too lenient a system of grazing. Mr Haeata applies 16 tons of superphosphate annually, half of it with cobalt and the other half with copper. A practice that should be discouraged is the cutting of new pastures for hay. One 13-month-old sward had already had two cuts of hay taken from it. This is far too severe on new grass, which normally should not be cut until it is well established. Excellent shelter belts of pines and lawsoniana are all well fenced from stock. Timber trees have been planted on a rocky outcrop unsuitable for grass.

A first-class Jersey herd of 67 cows is milked and 11 yearlings and 20 calves are also run. During the past four years production has been. as follows: Total Number Average Average Year butterfat of cows per cow per acre lb lb lb 1955- 15*418 75 206 116 1956- 71 258 137 . 1957- 19,555 67 292 160 TT , . ~ . ... Mr Haeata has recently built a new piggery in which are run 10 breeding sows. In the 1957-58 season the returns from pigs worked out at slightly over

£5 per cow milked. On the other hand a profit of over £2OO was made by buying in store lambs in January and selling them in autumn. Excellent provision is made for wintering the dairy herd: 1,365 bales of hay were cut on the property and 430 bales were obtained by Mr Haeata P a y men t for work he did off the farm. All except 500 bales were saved in excellent barns, the balance being in a very well made stack. In addition 12 acres of grass was conserved as silage and 6 acres of white-fleshed turnips were grown for supplementary feed for autumn and early winter.

The home on the farm is neat and well kept and the lawns and garden well laid out. A full range of outbuildings is in excellent repair, Mr Haeata has built himself a small office in which all records plus a plan of the farm were readily available, His system of keeping records could well be copied by most farmers, both Maori and European. The work Mr Haeata has put into his property has been of a very high standard. Today he has a farm that has an assured future and that can stand comparison with any other property at a similar stage of development.

Mr W. J. Swinton’s Farm at Whangamata, North of Waihi

THE property of 108 acres at A Whangamata, about 18 miles north of Waihi, farmed by Mr W. J. Swinton was originally developed by the Maori Affairs Department out of fern and scrub after the Second World War and was settled by Mr Swinton, a returned serviceman, five and a half years ago. , . , . . , ... The country is undulating to hilly, Cows are milked on 80 acres, while the balance, formerly grazed by his dairy stock, is now to be stocked with sheep. Pastures are somewhat variable in quality. Those at the front of the farm are very good, but the back paddocks have tended to revert to Yorkshire fog and weeds owing to difficulty of access and of management,

Only recently Mr Swinton decided to give up trying to run cows on the whole of the farm, and the introduction of sheep to the higher back pastures should result in a marked improvement in their quality. n5.,,.' „ » +k + , Two years ago many of the pastures were badly damaged by grass grub and DDT superphosphate was applied to bring this .pest under control. . Fifteen acre ? of dairy pasture were sod seeded with good results in the autumn of 1958. When the property was taken over by Mr Swinton there were many large patches of blackberry in the gullies and on several sidelings. These have

been cleaned up by the intelligent use of stock during winter, hay being fed out on the areas, which were later topdressed. Though ragwort is a serious weed on some farms in this district, it is kept well under control on this farm. Sixty acres were closed for autumnsaved pasture. The topdressing programme consists of 4 cwt per acre of 15 per cent potassic superphosphate yearly on the dairy pastures and 3 cwt of serpentine superphosphate per acre on the higher country. The property is subdivided into 18 paddocks, of which 16 are on the dairy country. The two sheep paddocks have since each been halved. Fences and gates are in splendid condition, and there is a central farm race on the dairy portion in spite of the hilly country.

Mr Swinton has erected over If miles of fences, has laid out more than a mile of water pipe, and has supplied water to every paddock. Most of the fencelines have been planted in barberry hedges, some of which are now fence height. . A herd of 54 good-type Jerseys is carried on the farm, with 20 yearlings and 15 calves. Mr Swinton has joined the A.B. scheme, and the improvement in the quality of the cows should be marked over the next few years. Butterfat returns have been as follows: Produc- ProducTotal Number tion tion Year butterfat of cows per cow per acre lb lb lb 1955- 14,196 54 263 142 1956- 11,906 58 205 109 1957- 14,666 54 271 136 In 1958 about 100 wether lambs were run at the back of the farm and in

the same year five breeding sows were run in a simple but efficient piggery. Returns from the pigs are not high, being under £6 per cow milked, but with the purchase of six national hybrid sows an improvement should be made. A feature of Mr Swinton’s pig management is that he tries to arrange farrowing dates to avoid having to carry stores over winter. A thousand bales of reasonably good hay are cut off the farm yearly. No silage is made, as the surface of the paddocks at present is too rough to permit the use of a buckrake. The provision of adequate winter feed is made more difficult because only 30 acres of the property are sufficiently flat to be cut for hay. The balance of the farm is far too hilly. Mr Swinton has decided to winter his cows on one of the flatter paddocks,

which will then be cropped with white-fleshed turnips for summer and autumn feed, after which it will be sown back to grass. After a few years there will be paddocks sufficiently smooth for silage to be made. The well kept house and garden make this a very attractive property. Buildings are in good repair, the cowshed in particular being in splendid order. Provision could possibly be made for increased storage of hay, which at present is kept in the implement shed. Farm machinery has to be kept in the open, protected by tarpaulins. Many more cases could be given of Maori farmers who are farming on modern lines and who are keen and energetic, often in spite of great physical and financial difficulties.