Cattle Industry

For The Islands

Ssarch for Tropical Type Seems Near End

ALL across the South Pacific Islands, from New Guinea to Tahiti, I have found a strong and growing interest in the problems of beef production in the tropical islands, This was highlighted when, quite unexpectedly, I met in Harold Gatty’s hospitable home in Suva the famous “Texas Cattle King,” Robert Justus Kleberg, who has “fixed” the Santa Gertrudis, the first new breed of cattle given to the world in 100 years, and the first ever produced in United States. (Readers Digest fea tured him in May, 1951.) The non-sweating, pure European :attle will not flourish in the tropics. \sian cattle (variously called Zebu, brahman, etc.) sweat and flourish, >ut they are a rangy, thin-flanked ype and are not economic producers )f milk and meat. Breeders, for a ;entury, have sought a cross for the ropics, without much success. Bob Cleberg, after 20 years of experi ment, finally found and fixed a breed mat is five-eighths Brahman, three ighths Shorthorn. It is suitable for iot zones, but it flourishes in all limates, and it is one-third heavier man European cattle.

Australia now is importing his anta Gertrudis, to breed up herds mr its vast sub-tropical and tropical ry plains. Kleberg toured Australia i October, to look over this new larket for his cattle. Gatty, enter rising as ever, pulled him off the ans-Pacific plane at Nadi, and iptored and flew him over, all over iti Levu, to appraise cattle possib ilities. He was tired; but, like all iese numerous American merchant oncers one now meets in the South tcific Islands, he was courteous, in- Tmative and helpful.

He had made a quick, thorough b of his Fiji inspection—he had rveyed the interior from the air, id he had been down on the ground, amining pastures and arguing about

md fertilisation and cross-breeding

th various farmers. He said, thout qualification, that Fiji could rry a million cattle. ‘ But” he added “this kind of in stry can be carried on successfully ly by big ranchers; and no big icher will start operations—in Aus ilia, or Fiji, or anywhere else— less there is security of land tenure you want a cattle industry, you deal with availability of I thought from that he must have

been in New Guinea—but he said he had not—he was merely stating

first principles.

work in the study of cattle

acclimatisation is being done by

the Fiji Department of Agriculture;

and here, as elsewhere, they are

working steadily towards that Zebu cross. This is from a report issued

in November:

“The twin calf experiment made in partnership with New Zealand focuses attention on the importance of breeding livestock which are adapted to a tropical environment; a high plane of nutrition is not enough. Apart from heat-tolerant strains of European breeds, it would appear that attention must be given to animals with Zebu blood, such as the Red Sindhi Jersey Cross dairy stock, and the Santa Gertrudis beef breed evolved on the King Ranch, Texas, by the

crossing of European Shorthorn cattte and the Nellore strain of Zebu.” in Samoa, 1 found similar " experiments being made by Mr, D. R. Eden, general manager of Reparations Estates. Samoans, grown rich on the cocoa industry, are now demanding increasing quantities of meat—last year, they ate 1,795 cattle, and huge quantities of canned stuff from NZ and Aus tralia. Mr. Eden now is bringing in 3,000 new acres of inland land, at 1,000-2,000 feet, where Polled Angus cattle will eat the local grasses, such as mimosa (or sensitive grass).

He has imported Zebu bulls from Fiji, and is crossing them with Here fords, seeking a beast that will not be distressed by heat, and that will resist tuberculosis and tick fevers.

The French are trying out the same idea in their cooler islands of French Oceania—l saw Zebus and the Zebu cross along the flat coastal lands of Tahiti; and in Tahiti and the other French islands there are

iuge areas of grassland, lying at )ver 1,000 feet. [N New Caledonia—most southerly of the South Pacific Islands, with i Queensland climate—they already lave a big cattle industry. There re canning works, and I found that )e mixed population eats lavishly f fresh steak.

There are 90,000 cattle in that rench colony; and the majority of le ranchers have a special reason >i cursing the war—the Yanks rought in Queensland horses, and ic horses brought in the cattle-tick, id now all NC cattle have to be pped regularly.

I DMINISTRATION, mission *■ bodies and private enterprise >w are taking Australian cattle into ew Guinea in large numbers, and ere is little doubt that a large and iportant industry will be established ere, just as soon as the Australian ivernment and the Administration opt a clear-cut policy regarding j availability of land.

This move towards cattle should ve commenced years ago, but it was mplicated by the extreme sensi ity of the late Administrator olonel J. K. Murray)—aided and etted by bureaucratic dreamers d missionary idealists—on the )ject of keeping all the Territory’s ids for the Territory’s natives.

New Guinea has the area and the high country suitable for cattle; and private enterprise already is solving the problems of pastures and suit able types. The major problem of finding a breed that will flourish profitably under tropical conditions —the Territory is very near the equator—seems close to solution (Kleberg’s Santa Gertrudis looks like the answer), and this could mean that beef production could be come an important Islands industry.

A BIG cattle-ranch, unlike a big plantation or mine or factory, could be run by a comparatively small number of Islands natives, who probably would be adapted easily to this kind of life. In other words, this particular industry need not create a serious labour problem.

It seems to me that this is a sub ject on which there should be a pooling of knowledge and experience by all the South Pacific Territories.

It is the kind of thing for which the machinery of the South Pacific Com mission was designed.—R. W.

Robson.

The Royal New Zealand Air Force will post 20 women for service in Fiji. WAAFS had served in Fiji during the war, and up until the end of 1945 at Lauthala Bay,