Cattle Raising On An

A New Industry for Papua-New Guinea?

Impressive Scale

When Australia, after World War 1, settled down with Papua and New Guinea in her care, those Territories produced little beyond copra and shell and (in Papua) some gold and rubber.

Since then the Dual Territory has established the gold, cocoa, coffee and timber industries, on a latge scale —as gold fades out, timber is coming in.

In this article, R. W. Robson, after a tour of both Territories, expresses his belief that the production of beef cattle presently will become a major industry, THE progress that is being made in the establishment of the beef cattle industry in Papua and

New Guinea is a little startling.

So also is the policy being fol lowed by the Australian Govern ment in the encouragement of this industry. Canberra evidently has decided that the profitable opera tion of- this industry, in that country, is a task for the big cor porations.

Canberra probably is right. The type of cattle-farming likely to suc ceed in P-NG demands a large area, enterprise based on scientific knowledge, a large organisation, and plenty of money.

The bigger pastoral interests, under Government approval, already are moving in.

When I was there in December, a herd of 152 cattle (mostly a Euro pean-Asian cross of heifers) which had been transported from Cairns in a few days by an LTS craft, was moving up the Markham Valley, to the new Atkinson lease of 21,000 acres on the Markham-Ramu Divide.

Another big cattle operator, Mr.

Webb, was out in that flat country beyond Fairfax Harbour (northwest of Port Moresby), examining another proposed very large pastoral lease with a view to cattle farming.

The powerful Carpenter interests are now—and have been for some time—transporting selected cattle (with a sprinkling of first-class Cebu-cross bulls among them) to their various plantations.

The big Missions are co-operating.

Early in December, an aircraft chartered from Qantas, and speci ally fitted, flew 19 head of an Aus tralian milking strain from Cairns to Vunapope Catholic Mission (out side Rabaul) in five hours—a dairy

ABOVE: Mr. A. L. Johnson, of Sogeri Plan tation, Papua; and, in background, some members of the herd of several hundreds which he has established by crossing Short horns with Zebu and part-Zebus. These animals have developed the Pacific Islands cattle habit of grazing by night and resting in the shade during the day.

BELOW; Old Granny Shorthorn I. With this, and a similar milking cow, Mr. Johnson started his herd some 12 years ago. Granny I is re garded as "aged", but she recently produced a calf so lusty that he could not be got within camera range.

ing project is obviously in con templation.

I inspected a herd (mostly Short horn crossed with Cebu) of several hundred animals on the rubber plantation at Sogeri (30 miles from Port Moresby), managed by Lyle Johnston, and they were fat and wallowing in pastures established by Johnston.

I spent some time with Michael J.

Leahy, New Guinea gold pioneer, who now has two cattle-stations overlooking the Markham Valley— one at Zenag and one farther in land, westwards; and I saw there how one establishes cattle-farm ing the hard way—finding the right cross between European and Asian types, endlessly experimenting with grasses until one gets the right pastures, combating indigenous worms and introduced cattle-ticks, and an occasionally unsympathetic officialdom.

All over the Dual Territory the story is the same—a definite and growingly strong move towards big scale beef-cattle production. The move has been gathering speed and weight since the war.

BEFORE the war, there were about 26,000 cattle in P-NG —a few good, the majority scrubber-ish, and none bred with anything in view except fresh milk on the plantations and fresh meat for the labour. When the Japs in vaded, in 1942, the herds were either eaten or dispersed into the jungles

—there were practically none there in 1946.

Then the Administration and private interests began to think of tropical cattle-farming in the modern way—the way that produced and fixed the famous Santa Gertrudis breed (mixed Shorthorn and Cebu) on the King Ranch in Texas, and the way that grows d beast for profitable export.

A series of more or less uncon nected experiments by various in terests (including the Administra tion) showed that there were three main problems in Papua and New Guinea: 1. To find the cross or crosses be tween European and Asiatic cattle that would resist heat and disease of the tropics, and give maximum beef weight. 2. To find the grasses calculated to beat the kunai and provide suit able pastures at varying altitudes. 3. To provide for the very heavy cost of transporting basic stock from Australia to Papua and New Guinea; and maintaining them there during the period of acclim atisation, and breeding up to economic numbers.

FOR years, before and after the war, I watched official and non official interests in the various South Pacific Islands fumbling around with problem 1. The Cebu cross seemed to be the answer—but which Cebu cross? There seemed to be a very wide variety of them.

I saw cattle-farming going on in New Caledonia 25 years ago, with some success—but NC is about the most southerly tropical island, and Queensland pastoral conditions ruled. i saw the Fiji Department of Agriculture co-operate with the Maynard Hedstrom interests to establish the dairying herds on the lush Navua fiats, without aid of Cebu; but later conditions and ex periments have shown that if the Fiji beef and dairy herds are to be successfully maintained, a bit of the Asiatic type must be introduced, And then—it seemed to me—the fixing of the Santa Gertrudis breed pointed the way Already there are Santa Gertrudis bulls in Fiji Papua, New Guinea, and, I think! the Solomons.

But it is not the actual Santa Gertrudis that has brought a new horizon to these pastoral experi ments—the new factor is the in formation made available by the King Ranch experiments, and proved i n the Santa Gertrudis fixation, Cattlemen in the tropical islands,

and in tropical Northern Australia are now going ahead with confid ence, in mixing the European am Asian strains.

Lyle Johnston, for example, ha some very fine cattle in his rubbe plantations 30 miles from For Moresby (1,500 ft altitude) —most!

Cebu-Shorthorn cross, but they ar not Santa Gertrudis. He is watch ing the characteristics of eac] generation with the fervour of scientist.

In some respects, altitude matter a good deal. Cattle on the coasts belts meet conditions quite dil ferent from those, say, in th Eastern Highlands, where th rolling, kunai-clad hills (appearin as ideal cattle-country, from th air) are at from 5,000 to 6,000 fee But whether on coastal belt c Highlands mountain, cattle in th tropics are subject to tropical in testinal worms; and there seem also to be something in the ang] of the sunshine which makes lif different for an animal strain de veloped through the ages in a tern perate zone, where there is muc less bite in the midday sun.

TOP and CENTRE: Some of the animals p[?] duced on Mr. Johnston's Sogeri Rubber Pla[?] tion, 1,300 feet altitude, by crossing Sho[?] horn and Cebu strains.

BELOW: A typical heifer of the herd 152 cattle landed in Lae, from Cairns, November, and "overlanded" to the [?] Atkinson cattle-station in the high count[?] at the top of the Markham Valley.

WITH problem No. 1 in course of solution, the experimenters turned to No. 2 —that of estab lishing pastures.

This, in P-NG, was a really tricky one. Vast areas, free of jungle, are densely clothed with various types of the coarse, heavy grass called kunai. Seen from the air, it looks like ideal pasture; but it is practic ally useless for all purposes except thatching houses.

But Mick Leahy, and other early experimenters, discovered that if the kunai were burned off com pletely, and allowed to sprout again, the introduced cattle would feed contentedly on the young and tender shoots. They found that if certain grasses, like paspalum and kikuyu, and some clovers, were sown at the same time some of the grasses would take hold and choke the kunai, and become established.

It was and is a matter of trial and error.

The Leahys, for example, experi mented for years. Mick, at Zenag (3,500 ft), exchanged notes with Jim, at Goroka (5,000 ft) and Danny, at Mount Hagen (6,000 ft); and between them they have learned quite a lot about the grasses that will thrive and beat the kunai at different altitudes.

Similarly, the plantation men and the Missions all over the coastal belts, from the Sepik to Bougain ville, and from New Ireland down to Northeast Papua, have been ex perimenting with pasture for stock just as they experiment with cover crops for cocoa, and all have con tributed much to the pool of know ledge.

The Department of Agriculture, equipped with little besides zeal in the early post-war years, but now in charge of an enthusiastic field staff and generous funds, kept pace with private enterprise in the be ginning: and in these later years unquestionably it has given valu able help and guidance to the in fant pastoral industry.

But, for a considerable period, the Administration seemed to be more concerned with promoting animal husbandry among natives than in assisting the Europeans to really establish beef cattle, I have seen the Administration’s experimental cattle stations at Baiyer River in the Highlands; in the Markham Valley; in the Sogeri area, near Port Moresby; and I have heard much about the other places; and there is no doubt that the data and the actual animals which are being supplied by the Department through these stations to the in terests planning cattle production are a contribution of enormous value. As one man who is planning for cattle said to me in December:

“Larry Dwyer’s field work really is paying off.”

Maybe I came at the right time of year, or something; but the cattle to be seen in December, at the Department’s cattle-station alongside the Sogeri Road really were impressive. That is low country—only a few hundred feet above sea-level. A matter of pastur age, careful breeding, and ceaseless watch against pests and diseases.

There is no reason why private enterprise, with money and know ledge, cannot reproduce these con ditions.

A FTER years of study and ex periment, Lyle Johnston be lieves that the Kokoda Valley— famous in war-time song and story

—can be made a great cattle pro ducer.

He says that there is an area there that is the bed of an old lake, about 30 miles by 10; its elevation is about 1,300 ft, and, under the right conditions, it would carry a beast to the acre. He has just sent in 84 grown animals and 16 calves, to establish a cattle-station there for the Kokoda Pastoral Company; and he is sending another 26 heifers, bought at Townsville, straight in to Kokoda.

The Kingswell family, now in Kokoda Valley, are taking up cattle farming Mr. Bert Kingswell already has between 30 and 40 Aberdeen Angus there now, and in tends to build a herd.

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THERE can be little profit now in these plantation cattle herds, because of the limited market for beef. Until there is a large refrigeration unit close to cattle-stations and shipping ports, nothing can be done with the beef, beyond meeting local demands.

Lyle Johnstone, for instance, kills a beast occasionally for his planta tion workers; but the latter, like all natives, have a strong prefer ence for canned meat. There is a huge market in P-NG for canned meat; so maybe a cannery, to take care of local demand, should pre cede refrigeration planned to treat beef for export.

Port Moresby—a healthy, growing city—should consume all the fresh beef that can be grown within a hundred miles. But PM has no abattoirs or slaughterhouse. So, while excellent young beef cattle chew a placid cud in the Sogeri, the Port Moresby folk go to the “freezer” for the rump steak and rolled beef that have been brought from a thousand miles South.

MUCH of the third problem finance —has been solved by the Administration in heroic fashion. It now pays to private enterprise a subsidy of £3O for every head of cattle which is im ported into the country for breed ing purposes.

For example, Messrs. R. L. Atkin son and Sons, North Queensland pastoralists, who shipped 150 head from Cairns to Lae in November, will collect £4,500 from Administra tion. That may not pay all costs of transportation, but it will help.

The balance is in P-NG’s favour.

The establishment of 150 selected cattle on the high country between the Markham and the Ramu is worth immensely more than £4,500 in the future economy of NG.

Under the stimulus of the subsidy, cattle now are moving towards New Guinea, mostly from Queensland, in ever-increasing numbers. It is simply a question of providing land and pasturage; and, later on, canneries and refrigeration.

Most of the far-sighted cattlemen are taking advantage of this subsidy at once. Michael Leahy now has 600 head on the way from Queens land to his new cattle-station above the Markham “AMONG the 1,100 cattle which we now have at Seven-Mile (out on the road to Sogeri), and with which we have been ex perimenting, are Jerseys, whole Shorthorn, Black Angus, Cebu and Cebu crosses,” said Mr. Larry Dwyer, head of the Agriculture Depart ment. “Every aspect of their breed ing and development is made avail able to people in the Territory.

“Between Port Moresby and Galley Reach there is an area of 200,000 acres of which we do not

know much—but it could be cattle country. The Lands Department is looking at another big area out be yond the Brown and Vanapa Rivers (northwest of Moresby), and roads are going in there—that could be suitable for cattle. I think there may be another large, suitable area in the Fly River Delta region.

“We believe there is a future for cattle; but in the beginning, at any rate, it is an enterprise for big corporations—the initial costs are very heavy.

“We are granting pastoral leases under the right conditions—we granted five in New Guinea, repre senting 13,310 acres, in 1953-54, and five more, representing 23,326 acres, in 1955-56; and two leases, repre senting 12,679 acres, in Papua in 1954-55.

“There soon will be 9,000 cattle in P-NG, including the 3,000 owned by the Department, and they are immensely better cattle than those here before the war; and there now are 10 dairy herds established. (Most of the bigger towns have a fresh milk supply).

“Much of the low country around Moresby, once regarded as swampy and useless, probably can be used for cattle-farming. We do not know positively, yet; but we suspect certain deficiencies in trace elements —remedies can be applied, once we know.”