Cattle Industry

Fears For NNG's Cattle Industry Under Indonesia

From an AAP-Reuter Correspondent in Hollandia Cows are flying in Dutch New .iiinea —but they have to be ven a tranquiliser first. The

Ivs —and bulls, too—are being

ken over the massive mountain mges of the Central Highlands ! the Baliem Valley and the issel Lakes area by plane as irt of a Dutch drive to build up

Papuan cattle industry.

|UTCH officials hope that, if the * political situation allows, the iustry will continue to expand in [table parts of the Territory, spite a general absence of natural arces of suitable fodder.

It could be a valuable food supply a country where meat is scarce d could give employment to many lives.

The Chief of the Agricultural partment’s Sub-division of Animal |sbandry, Mr. A. Van Leeuwen, d that because of the Indonesian eats to Dutch New Guinea, the mber of European cattle owners I been decreasing in the last five six years.

Fhe main cattle area in Dutch w Guinea was in the Merauke trict on the south coast, near the rder with the Australian territory Papua, and was being carried on gely by Indonesians. Most of them 1 come to New Guinea before the :ond World War from Java and icr over-crowded areas of the itch East Indies. There were about 00 Indonesians in the Merauke a, Mr. Van Leeuwen said.

Df the 4,000 head of cattle in the rritory more than 3,000 were in Merauke District, They were ned by Dutchmen, Indonesians and puans but the Dutch were gradually ling out of the industry and re- Hing to Holland. fhe first cattle were taken to tch New Guinea in 1901 from the therlands East Indies. During the »rs that followed other cattle ived, some of them from Aus lia.

V the beginning of the Second >rld War there were 5,000 head

in C ? Untry but £ M , r * Van Leeuwen said that many of these were killed soldiers andmhers a wenrwild J X n the end of the war on.y 500 remained. bmce then the natural increase, which is very high, about 15 per cent a year, and imports have raised the figure to 4,000.

At Merauke the Government has an experimental station which ineludes in its functions the improving of the strain of cattle in Dutch New

Guinea. There are 400 head at the station. ..Jhl ’R 8 h ''• mporte i fro “ Aust 'f'f

aU^eTzebu

and one Santa Gertrudis bull for grading up the Merauke cattle. In 1960 three Santa Gertrudis and one Brahmin bull were brought in from the United States, Since 1958 the Government has been trying to interest Papuans in cattle breeding and although the

areas with favourable land are scattered throughout the jungle-clad territory Mr. Van Leeuwen thinks that the chances of the scheme work ing are good.

The Papuans are helped through a loan contract scheme under which the Government lends a man some cattle, usually one bull and three cows, on condition that after five years he gives back 150 per cent, of the original number. The animals remaining from the breeding become the Papuan’s property and the others go towards expanding the scheme.

This is mostly done in areas where cattle are already known but the

project has also been extended to such areas as the Central Highlands where, until recently, cattle had never been seen by the natives.

In such cases the cattle are generally given to a Mission under the contract scheme and the missionaries teach Papuans how to look after them and so draw the natives into the industry.

Aircraft have to be used to take cattle to such areas as the Central Highlands because there are no roads through the heavily-forested hinter land or over the steep mountains.

Dakotas are sometimes used but quite often it is a little Cessna

which will carry a cow or bull a: it has been injected with a tr quiliser—and sometimes tied v rope.

The cattle from Australia set in well and their progeny v retaining many of their characte tics, Mr. Van Leeuwen said.

The Zebu, used for meat draught purposes, had a high I tolerance and was conditioned to 1 humidity, so it was being used larj on the low coastal plains.

European cattle, with low I tolerance, were mainly used in Highlands and Merauke, inckw Hollandia, Geelvink Bay, parts of Vogelkop Peninsula and around south-west coast town of Fakfak.

Mr. Van Leeuwen hopes to port 200 to 300 head of dairy cs for the Wissel Lakes area, prob; from Holland but possibly from A tralia. At first they will be run a Government station to be H there but later will go out on I contract to local Papuans. TI are thousands of goats in the L tory. So far these have been t for meat but the Government into to experiment with dairy goats £ Australia at its Baliem Valley stat The Agricultural Department helping Papuans improve fertility rate of the 150,000 pig; Dutch New Guinea. Pigs, the domestic animals the Papuans b until cattle were introduced, are important factor in the native of life. Apart from being a soc of food, they are a status syn and often are part of the price buying a bride.

Mr. Van Leeuwen said that year the Government would inci its experimental stations from sit 12. He said that the only lime factors in interesting the Papuan cattle raising were the lack of o and lack of Dutch experts to tr the natives.

“Educating the Papuans in H ling cattle is a long-term projects said. “The interest of the Papi increases as the cattle population creases.”

Mr. Van Leeuwen said he bell that the cattle industry would s badly if the Indonesians took Dutch New Guinea.

He was working in Indonesia 1949 to 1955, he said, and dt that time the cattle industry was declining all the time.

“I am afraid for the cattld dustry here if they come,” he < “They have not the experts ojc drive to carry it on.”