THE RANCHING INDUSTRY IN HAWAII

RANCHING in Hawaii depends solely on grazing to produce and finish its beef. Each ranch functions essentially as an independent unit, there being little sale of feeder cattle. Pen fattening has not proved feasible because of the high cost of imported concentrates. Before the war, many ranchmen hauled molasses to accessible parts of the ranch, but present prices have restricted its use. There are few haystacks, silos, and granaries fresh grass is fed almost from birth to slaughter. The best ranches market well-finished beef at 2 to 3 years of age that average 550 pounds per dressed carcass. Beef from the poorer ranches is not always well finished, but it is accepted by some of the local markets.

This system of year-round grazing is possible because of the close proximity of zones of markedly different climate. Many of the old royal land grants were in strips of land extending from seashore to mountain top; the pattern persists in present landownership and leases.

Grazing management is largely a matter of moving the animals to where the feed is. The fattening animals are grazed on the best pastures, which may be in any one of the several zones, depending on the season. Where possible, the animals are kept in one paddock or on the same type of forage during the entire fattening period. The breeding herd is grazed on the less desirable paddocks, often in the zones of relatively high rainfall. The growing stock is generally carried in the least developed open range areas.

The size of the individual paddock varies greatly, according to the ranch, the carrying capacity of the area, and the grazing use.

The poorer range paddocks are sometimes several thousand acres in size, while the fattening paddocks are often as small as a hundred acres. The type of water development and distribution varies with the location. Mostly the collection of surface water is the only feasible method. Where water cannot be had from the public county systems, the rancher must develop his own. In some places, springs can be utilized; in others small dams are constructed in drainage basins and the water piped to the desired locations. Some have a large galvanized-iron roof on a hillside and collect the run-off. Water is stored in wooden or metal tanks and piped to the various paddocks.

In establishing new pastures, the rancher usually has to clear a dense growth of trees and shrubs formerly accomplished by crude equipment at a cost up to $100 an acre. Now track-layer tractors are commonly used. Bulldozers are used to break down the larger shrubs; various heavy chain and flexible bar attachments are effective with the smaller shrubs. Probably the most useful tool is the heavy cutaway disk harrow, which breaks down, macerates, and finally plows the soil sufficiently well for planting. The power mower is used to prevent reinfestation. Weed killers, including Diesel oil and sodium chlorate mixtures and 2,4 D, are sometimes employed. There is evidence that the hormone sprays will aid in the control of certain shrubs. Cactus is being partly controlled by a locally developed fungus treatment.

Planting materials and methods vary according to the zone, the use, and the species being planted. A large part of the ranch lands are too broken, rocky, or inaccessible to be handled by machinery. Considerable improvement can be made by scattering seed on the undisturbed soil although progress is often slow and uncertain. Koa haole, guineagrass, molassesgrass, and a number of the temperate species of grasses and legumes have thus been successfully established. Where the area can be plowed the seed is usually broadcast and disked in.

Kikuyugrass, Napiergrass, and Para-grass are planted by stem cuttings, but Dallisgrass and guineagrass are planted sometimes with stool or crown divisions. The Napiergrass stems are planted with a home-made sled device or hand-placed in furrows and covered. The runners or stems of kikuyugrass and Paragrass are usually spread over the plowed field and disked in. The crowns of guineagrass and Dallisgrass are plowed out, broken up by hand, and planted in furrows.

A serious difficulty with respect to tropical forage species is the lack of reliable sources of seed. Seed of many species is not produced at all for commercial distribution; some others are below the specifications of the Federal seed law. Some ranchers collect their own seed, a tedious and costly hand process. The development of equipment adapted to local conditions and species, for harvesting, threshing, and drying local seed would be a marked contribution.

With few exceptions, all pastures are of the permanent. type, and, once established, pasture management consists primarily in preventing the reinfestation by plant pests and keeping production up. Plowing every 5 to 10 years is common on many ranches; the practice destroys many perennial shrubs, reduces stands of undesirable grasses, and permits the development of desirable annuals like ryegrass, bromegrass, bur-clover, black medic, Indian yellow sweetclover, and vetch, which are largely repressed by a dense sod of Bermuda-grass.

Planting corn for one crop is an excellent practice; even a partial crop helps defray the costs of plowing. Little cultivation is practiced, and by the time the crop is mature there is a luxuriant growth of pasture species.

Use of nitrogen fertilizers in beef pastures is not yet an accepted practice, but under certain conditions it may be feasible. Among the reasons that may justify its use for beef production is that by applying the nitrogen in late spring and fall the additional forage can be carried over into the dry summer and the colder months when growth in most localities is at a minimum. Most soils here are low in available nitrogen, and the response to it is pronounced. Increases of 2 or 3 tons an acre of harvested forage per 100 pounds of ammonium sulfate are common. Besides, good fattening pastures are the limiting factor in production of most ranches, and increased forage would permit larger herds.

Preliminary trials indicate that lime and phosphate give a marked response to most legumes in zone D₁. In zone C, the major response is to phosphates. It is doubtful if fertilizers of any sort are justified in the dry zones A and B without irrigation. There is some evidence of response of grasses to both phosphates and potash in parts of zone D₁, especially when nitrogen is also applied. Many problems connected with liming and fertilizing remain to be answered, but the practice seems to offer a good possibility for more productive and nutritious pastures.

Actual data are fragmentary as to mineral deficiencies or the presence of toxic elements in pasture forage. Forage from the high-rainfall zones tends to be deficient in calcium and phosphorus, and many ranchmen include a lime-phosphate mixture in the salt licks, but there are no mineral deficiencies so widespread or aggravated as to cause any manifest deficiency diseases among grazing animals in any part of the islands.