History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand: Encyclopedia - History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand

Aerial topdressing is the spreading of fertilisers such as superphosphate over farm land. Aerial Topdressing was developed in New Zealand in the 1940s and was rapidly adopted elsewhere in the 1950s. For spraying of insecticides and fungicides, by air, see crop dusting, for more general information about agricultural aircraft see aerial application.

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - Origins

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - Other Aerial Applications

The first known aerial application of agricultural materials was by John Chaytor, who in 1906 spread seed over a swamped valley floor in Wairoa, New Zealand, using a hot air balloon with mobile tethers.

The first known use of a heavier than air machine occured on 3 August 1921 when as the result of advocacy by Dr Coad, a USAAC Curtiss JN4 Jenny piloted by John MacReady was used to spread lead arsenate to kill catalpha sphinx caterpillars near Troy, Ohio in the United States. The first commercial operations were attempted in 1924 and use of insecticide and fungicide for crop dusting slowly spread in the Americas and to a lesser extent other nations. Crop dusting poisons enjoyed a boom after World War II until the environmental impact of widespread use became clear, particularly after the publishing of Rachel Carson's Silent Spring.

The topdressing of fertiliser by air took substantially longer to be developed.

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - Early Suggestions

Initial interest in New Zealand concentrated on seed sowing, however much of new Zealand's central North Island farm land, given to returned servicemen after World War I, had proven deficient in trace minerals such as cobalt, copper and selenium, forceing difficult topdressing by hand in rough contry, or abandoning the land for forestry and the possibility of using aircraft soon occured.

Spreading Superphosphate by agricultural aircraft was independantly suggested by two New Zealanders, John Lambert of Hunterville and Len Daniell of Wairere in 1926. There was some publicity when in 1936 Hawkes Bay farmer Harold McHardy used a de Havilland Gypsy Moth to sow clover seed on his own land. This lead the Soil Conservation and Rivers Control Council to decide to fund aerial sowing and topdressing trials to prevent erosion in 1937, but little progress was made, despite strong advocacy by Doug Campbell.

At that time it was illegal for anything to dropped from an aircraft, which dissuaded several advocates who felt a law change was needed before experiments could begin. In fact news of early experiments was spread by an article was a published by a government pilot for the Ministry of Works who simply took the risk of publishing an article showing he broke the law.

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - Alan Pritchard

Alan Pritchard pilot for the New Zealand Public Works Department, recalls the idea of spreaing seed occured to him as he was flying E Madden of the Ministry of Works in a Moth, sharing grapes and throwing the seeds out of the open cockpits. A few months later, he was prevented from conducting an aerial survey in Northland when the Ministry's Miles Whitney Straight ZK AFH was grounded by bad weather. A supervisor J L Harrison, complained Pritchard was holding back men needed to sow lupin seed. Pritchard suggested that the sowing the seed by air. Burrying the hatchet, Harrison and Pritchard spent that evenining experimenting with methods of dispersal, before settling on sewing a sack onto a peice of down pipe. The following morning, 8 March, Pritchard flew over Ninety Mile Beach while Harrison, on his signal, held the down pipe out a window and emptied the sack. They then landed and examined the spread of the seeds. It was found a distribution of 1 seed per square foot was obtained from a height of 100 - 150 feet. On Monday 10 March, they sowed 375 acres, using 2lb/acre (instead of the 5lb/acre used when sowing by hand). The pair returned to examine the site at 2 weeks, 1 month and 2 years, at all points the aerially sown land was indistinguishable from that sown by hand. After the outbreak of World War II, he had the good fortune to retain the use of ZK AFH, when most ofter aircraft were impressed for war time service.

Pritchard wrote up the experiment in the NZ Journal of Agriculture (vol 70 p117-120). This came to the attention of the Minister Bob Semple, who Pritchard occasionally flew as a VIP. Semple asked how Pitchard had obtained permission. Pritchard admitted he hadn't, and had "cribbed' back the time in the ZK AFH's logbooks by extending the time of other flights. Semple encourraged Pritchard to continue, adding "Don't let anyone catch you, and if they do, send them to me". Pritchard conducted various trials between 1939 and 1943, at some point during which he added fertiliser to the seeds.

As a result in 1945 the Department of Agriculture estimated aerial topdressing would cost about £4 per ton of fertiliser (on a basis of 2 cwt per acre), which was economic, (in actual fact, this price turned out to be a significant overestimate). Pritchard now found an ally, who could officially sanction further trials.

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - Doug Campbell

Doug Campbell had been suggesting the spread of both seed and fertiliser for erosion control and adding trace minerals since the 1930s. Immediately after the war, he obtained permission to build a sheet metal hopper for ZK AFH to test the spread of blue stone crystals. In 1946 the first pure topdressing flight was conducted. Mixtures fo bluestone crystals, sulphate of ammonia, slaked lime and carbon black were used. The lack of a lid for the hopper initially resulted in irritating dust spreading through the aircraft in turbulence, in cold wet conditions it was necessary to heat the hopper to prevent the fertiliser coagulating, while in dry conditions the powder tended to dispirse in the wond before reaching the ground. Never the less in July Campbell arranged for ZK AFH to topdress 1,100 acres of a copper deficient farm. In August 1947 trials with cobalt sulphate in liquid form were conducted on the farm of KM Hickson near Taumaranui, with a horseback mounted radio used to convey results to the pilot. It was soon suggested that cobaltised superphosphate would be easier to spread although it was felt a speciaised aircraft would be needed to do this.

Campbell published his research in the New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology Volume X 1948 as “Some observations on Top dressing in New Zealand”.

Convinced by the trials, Campbell formed the co-ordinating and advisory committee on Aerial Topdressing with representatives from the Ministry of Public Works, Department of Agriculture, Department of Air, DSIR and Soil Conservation council. At the committee's first meeting on 27 November 1947 it resolved to ask the RNZAF for assistance.

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - The Royal New Zealand Air Force trials

The RNZAF between the second world war and the cold war, the RNZAF was a large and competent organisation without a lot of work to do. It responded enthusiastically to Campbell's suggestion, initially proposing to use Tiger Moth and DC3 aircraft, but concerns about corrosion lead them to use "expendable" war surplus Grumman Avengers.

Experiments were resumed on 5 September 1948 using the Witney Straight and three Grumman Avengers; the Royal New Zealand Air Force put superphosphate in a converted long range fuel tank in Avenger NZ2504 and dropped it over the concrete runway at Ohakea. (NZ2504 is now preserved in the Royal New Zealand Air Force Museum).

The superphosphate was too powdery but a more granular form was found before final trials measuring distribution pattern of spread by air on September 16. The results were considered very promising. Trials proceeded to hill country at Te Mata near Raglan, and were extended to three other sites.

For 1949 a Research and Development flight was formed under Stan Quill equipped with the three Avengers and a DC3, while instructions were sent to england to modify 2 Miles Aerovans on the production line to carry 1 ton hoppers. The 1948 fuel tank was replaced by a hopper with sides angled at 60 degrees and a vibrating rod to losen the superphosphate. Large scale topdressing started on 14 March 1949 spreading clover-super mix. The "Topdress III" trials culminated on 21 May 1949, with a demonstration drop on eleven different properties close to Masterton in front of large numbers of farmers and press. These trials were calculated to have spread 2.5 cwt/acre at at an all up cost of 15/- despite the use of inapproprately over powered combat aircraft. Further public displays were given to cabinet ministers on 30 August at Johnsonville, on 9 September at Ohakea and at a September 17 Airforce day airshow. As these trials were a resounding success, in addition to the Aerovans, 12 RNZAF Bristol Freighters, then under construction were modified to take Superphosphate hoppers.

Following the successful RNZAF trials, in 1950 farmers groups lobbied the government to have the RNZAF provide subsidised topdressing with the Bristol freighters and even advocated using giant Handley Page Hastings. But by this time, government work was being overtaken by private enterprise as in ex-airforce pilots bought kiwi built De Havilland Tiger Moth biplanes cheaply, placed a hopper in the front seat and went into business flying from the paddocks of any farmer willing to pay. The RNZAF was waking up to the "Communist threat" and preferred to concentrate upon defence and the government reluctant to spend money or interfere with the increasing number of commerical operators.

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - Reaserch in Other Nations

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - Australia

The first experimental topdressing in Australia was done by a private Tiger Moth in 1948.

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - Great Britian

Faced with far greater difficulty operating aircraft from small British farms, the British Government assumed topdressing aircraft would need to operate from an ordinary runway. Economies of scale then dictated using large aircraft, which would in turn have to fly higher. Accordingly in 1950 the RAF conducted trials over Scottish farm land with Avro Lincoln and Avro Lancaster bombers carrying canvas trays with 5 tons of superphosphate in 14lb and 28lb paper bags, designed to burst on impact. These trials were a failure due to poor spread achieved from the bags. The Bristol Aeroplane Company conducted private trials on hill ocuntry in the same year with scaled up versions of the New Zealand hoppers fitted to Bristol Freighters. The success of these trials was widely publicised through Farmer's Weekly magazine. A Hopper conversion was also marketed for the Handley Page Hastings.

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - The Supermen - private operators

Several factors lay behind the development of aerial topdressing in the apparent backwater of New Zealand. The New Zealand civil service gave its employees time and resources to pursue their ideas and publish research. Many farms included hill country, where it was impossible to spread fertiliser by truck. New Zealand farms tended to be large enough to make the costs worthwhile. High prices for lamb and wool in the early 1950s gave farmers the extra capital. World War II had left behind cheap war surplus Tiger Moths and highly trained ex air force pilots.

By the end of 1949 there were 5 firms; Airwork had 5 Tigermoths, James aviation 3, Aircraft Services 3, Gisborne Aerial topdressing - which was to become Field air - had 1 and Southern Scenic Airtrips had converted an Auster. In addition Wally harding was top dressing his own property with his private Tiger Moth. Withtin the following 5 years nearly 50 other companies - mostly one man operations - joined as competition, but when amalgamation occured it was these pioneers who came to dominate the New Zealand industry.

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - AirworkNZ

Since 1947 Airwork (NZ) had been operating Tiger Moths for rabbit killing by spreading posioned carrots in Canterbury. In early May 1949 Charles Brazier used ZK ASO to spread lime. Airwork were aware Fred "Popeye" Lucas had conducted aerial seeding as well as rabbit poisoning and discussed the possibility of dropping seeds with fertiliser - as Pritchard had done - with Ces Worrell, a grain and seed merchant. He suggested spreading superphosphate alone would be more profitable a suggestion he may have wished he'd kept to himself - the following year, Worrell started Aerial Sowing to compete. Airwork conducted a public demonstration on Sir Heaton Rhodes property at Tai Tapu on 27 May 1949. To save time bulk loading from a vehicle was pioneered instead of emptying bags into the hopper. For the first drop a hurridely converted Hupmobile but this soon broke down and replaced by a Landrover chassis was fitted with hydraulic arms. This investment was justified when Pyne Gound Guniness placed the first large contract at Christmas 1949. Airwork would go on to have a major role in the development fo the Fletcher.

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - Fieldair

Lawson Field (1896 – 1981) a farmer and pilot, converted one of Gisborne Aero Club's de Havilland Tiger Moths, barbara II, so that Ken Young could drop superphosphate during the week and the club could fly the plane at weekends. When the club complained the hopper could not be removed from the passenger seat without causing structural damage, Field bought Barbara II and started the Gisborne Aerial Topdressing Company on 2 August 1949. He calculated his first drop cost £2.10s. per ton of fertiliser, and he was able to charge farmers £5 per ton. In September 1949 he became the founding president of the New Zealand Aerial Work Operators' Association (later the Aviation Industry Association of New Zealand). In 1951 he renamed the company Fieldair Limited and bought in modern De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beavers and in 1955 Lockheed Lodestars. Fieldair developed the tractor-mounted hopper loader, adopted throughout the industry, and became the largest topdressing firm in the country by the 1980s. By Field’s death in 1981, Fieldair was the largest aerial-topdressing company in New Zealand.

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - Wanganui Aero Work

Wally Harding, a pioneer Waiouru farmer converted his Tiger Moth into a top dresser in 1949 to use on his own not particularly productive high country station. The following year he founded Wanganui Aero Work Ltd. By 1954 the company added the first Fletcher produced to its five Tiger Moths. It also operated Beavers, Ceres, Cessna 180/185's, Piper Pawnees, Piper Cubs, and Cessna Agwagons, but eventually standardised on Fletchers for the entire fixed wing fleet, purchasing eight PAC Cresco when these were introduced. In 2004 the family business was bought out by Ravensdown Fertiliser Cooperative, although Wally’s son still flies for it.

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - James Aviation

Ossie James was another pilot and farmer who started with a Tiger Moth salvaged from floodwaters in 1948 and progressed to owning the largest fleet of Fletchers in the country. James Aviation flew a number of DC 3s as well as Fletchers. James was heavily involved in the New Zealand International Field Days, Salvation Army and Waikato Aero Club. Ossie James was made a Distinguished Companion of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2004.

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - The Aircraft

By 1952 there were 38 firms in the business in New Zealand, operating 149 aircraft, of which 138 were Tiger Moths. A smattering of higher powered De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beavers were the only modern types. By 1956 there were 182 aerial topdressing Tigermoths but it was obvious the lightweight Tiger Moths would need to be replaced. At the begining of the 1950s there were no specialist designs for even crop dusters, due to the proliferation of wrold war II surplus trainers. But for topdressing something larger and more robust was needed.

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - War Surplus

Conversions of more robust World War II aircraft started. In New Zealand large numbers of heavy twin engined types, such as Douglas DC-3s and Lockheed Lodestars were converted. The North American Harvard and its Australian built counterpart, the CAC Wirraway were adapted by rebuilds, the Wirraway into the CAC Ceres. Bits of Harvard were used by Luigi Pellerini to make most of the bizarre twin-tailed cockpit over the engine Bennett Airtruck, flight tested at Te Kuiti in 1950, surprisingly not only had a long and succesful career but was put into production (as an all new buld aircraft) in Australia, becoming the Transavia Airtruck – and later played a bitsa in the Mad Max movies.

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - Existing designs

Attempts to adapt utility aircraft. The DHC Beaver was purchased in numbers and there were abortive plans to build it under license in New Zealand, but its high wing and bulky cabin were unsuited to the role. In the UK Miles Aerovans proved underpowered. In the Eastern Block, where economy mattered less, the Antonov An2 was used for the role.

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - Developing Specialist machines

Entirely new designs were clearly needed in Australasia. In Britain Auster produced the Auster Agricola and Percival the Percival EP9 for the New Zealand market, both robust but primitive fabric covered aircraft, while in Australia the small but more advanced Yeoman Cropmaster was developed.

In the United States, Fletcher Aviation Corporation was persuaded by a delegation of New Zealanders to develop an aircraft for the New Zealand market, and adapted a design for the FD25 Defender light attack aircraft into the Fletcher Fu24, a stressed skin monoplane with a high lift wing, more than three times the load of the Tiger Moth, and the cockpit located well forward, ahead of the hopper, giving the pilot all round view. This – with a few changes, such as an enclosed cockpit - turned out to be the winning formula. Cable Price Corporation funded two prototypes with the New Zealand Meat Producers Board acting as financial guarantor; Airparts was formed to build the kits. The first prototype was flown in America in June 1954, the second in New Zealand and it received type approval in May 1955. Airparts bought out the rights and continued development locally.

Specialist crop dusters such as the Grumman Agcat emerged in America in the mid 1950s, designed for the flat mid west, these generally had poorer forward vision lesser payload to weight ratios than the Fletcher, which continued to dominate the New Zealand market, however in places where aircraft primarily were used to drop insecticide, these American designs dominated the market.

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - Pacific Aerospace

Having taken over from Air Parts and AESL, Pacific Aerospace is the manufacturer of the PAC Fletcher and the similar but larger and turboprop powered PAC Cresco, as well as the PAC 750XL and PAC CT/4 Airtrainer, Pacific Aerospace of Hamilton is New Zealand's largest aircraft manufacturer. Flecthers and Crescos have been exported widely to Africa, the Middle east, and South America as well as Australasia. Differences between the demands of American and European markets, as well as entry barrier, have ensured the antipodean style of topdresser has not competed with the cockpit behind the hopper designs of American manufacturers.

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - The Mature Industry

By 1958 there were 73 aerial topdressing firms in New Zealand, flying 279 aircraft - but although the amount of superphospate dropped and the acreage it fell on would continue to increase, from now on the numbers of companies aircraft and pilots dropped, as the larger more expensive Fletchers came to dominate the market and the one man companies that began in the 1940s were amalgamated.

By 1965, a million tons of superphospate was being dropped annually, spread over 9 million acres. The amount an aircraft dropped had increased from 2 ½ tons to 8 tons and there were 10,000 privately owned airstrips for topdressing in New Zealand. Other work was also done by Agricultural aircraft, as in foreign countries, particularly outside the February to May prime season; sowing clover seed is sown and spraying is carried out with insecticides, fungicides, and weed killers as well as general utility work. Aerial Topdressing has been attributed with vastly increasing agricultural production - in New Zealand alone, sheep numbers increased from 40 million to over 70 million, the majority of the increase being attributed to the increased feed superphosphate made available.

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - Environmental Impact

Ironically, given the industry was started by government research aimed at soil conservation, a number of negative impacts have emerged. The two major criticisms are the run off of fertiliser into streams and waterways encourages marine plant growth, leading to choking of the waterways, and altering the fresh water ecosystem, disadvantaging many fish, (and frustrating anglers). To minimise impact, topdressing is now prohibited within certain distances of water. The second impact is less direct. By enabling sheep to be run profitably on steep hillsides, the topdressing industry stopped reforestation of otherwise uneconomic land, contributing to the erosion it was orginally designed to prevent.

The mining of superphosphate from guano deposits on the tiny South Pacific island of Nauru temporarily made the island one of the richest nations in the world, per capita, but removed most of the soil from the island, creating a pitted moonscape.

An unsuccessful topdressing plant is the only business other than tourism ever attempted on the volcanic White Island. The plant was largely destroyed in an eruption.

See also

• Crop dusting

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - Print media

Alexander, G. & J. S. Tullett, “The Super Men”. A.H. & A.W. Reed, Wellington, 1967 (an popular, anecdotal history of the early years of top dressing)

Geelen, Janic "The Topdressers" NZ Aviation Press. Te Awamutu, 1983 (a more comprehensive history of New Zealand top dressing, mostly regional, with separate chapters about matters such as aircraft development).

D.A. Campbell “Some observations on Top dressing in New Zealand,” New Zealand Journal of Science and Technology Volume X 1948 (the article which started the industry).

Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries "Topdressing" Government Press, Wellington, 1973. (a breif manual aimed largely at farmers).

History of aerial topdressing in New Zealand - Web sites

Geelen, Janic. 'Field, Lawson Lysnar Copland 1896 - 1981'. Dictionary of New Zealand Biography, updated 7 July 2005 URL: http://www.dnzb.govt.nz/

Encyclopedia history of Topdressing to the mid 1960s http://www.teara.govt.nz/1966/A/AerialTopdressing/AerialTopdressing/en

New Zealand topdressing history http://www.techhistory.co.nz/OntheLand/aerial_top-dressing.htm

White Island History http://www.wi.co.nz/ Volcano Web Cam (the inspiration for Skull Island's fauna)? http://www.geonet.org.nz/whiteisland.html

Categories: Agriculture | History of New Zealand | Economy of New Zealand

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