Agriculture

Agriculture

Producing food for the world was New Zealand’s proper role and "boundless duty", he insisted; nowhere else could grow grass or produce food from it so well.

Dictionary of New Zealand Biography entry for Enoch Bruce Levy, by Ross Galbreath

The image of a cow lazily chewing on grass belies the intense scientific work that has shaped New Zealand’s agricultural landscape.

For our lush green pasture, one of the scientists we can thank is Enoch Bruce Levy (1892-1985). Right from the start of his career, while a clerical cadet at the Department of Agriculture, Commerce and Tourists in Wellington, he had a knack for communicating research to farmers. He soon moved into the biology department and helped encourage farmers to use superphosphate to grow grasses and clovers. Later, at the Plant Research Station in Palmerston North, he began trials for the best strains for productive pasture. By 1931, he’d helped identify superior strains of ryegrass and white clover, which became the standards for New Zealand farmers and a major factor in the country’s increased pastoral production.

Levy became director of the Grasslands Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research (DSIR) and his book, Grasslands of New Zealand, became a farmer’s bible. His pastoral passion didn’t cease when he retired as he turned his skills to producing verdant bowling greens and golf courses.

Other pioneering scientists also sought to boost the output of New Zealand’s agricultural sector. Bacteriologist Hugh Whitehead (1899-1983) was one of three foundation staff of the Dairy Research Institute. In the mid-1930s, he pinpointed viruslike particles known as bacteriophages as the reason behind the sudden failure of acid development during cheese making. He became, a biographer writes, ‘revered by cheesemakers as he helped transform their work from an art to a science’.

The Dairy Research Institute’s chief chemist, Frederick McDowall (1900- 1975), also contributed to New Zealand’s pre-eminence in dairy exports. He studied the vitamin and mineral content of New Zealand milk and helped develop a process for converting butter into anhydrous milk, which could be stored without refrigeration and converted back into butter.

Today, the agriculture sector remains crucial to New Zealand: New Zealand’s primary sector contributes 8 percent directly to the economy and New Zealand’s multinational dairy company, Fonterra, generates 20 percent of New Zealand’s export receipts. New Zealand’s biggest crown research institute, AgResearch, is the one focusing on agriculture.

Staggering ryegrass

It was AgResearch scientist Lester Fletcher and his team who discovered the link between the animal illness, ryegrass staggers, and endophytes, a type of fungus living in the spaces between plant cells. But endophytes also protect plants from insect attack, so AgResearch set out to find an endophyte that protected plants but didn’t make sheep ill.

In 1997, mycologist Garry Latch and his team discovered the AR1 endophyte, which offers plants protection against black beetle, pasture mealy bug and the voracious Argentine stem weevil, but doesn’t cause ryegrass staggers. AR1 varieties now make up half of all proprietary ryegrasses sold in New Zealand. Recently, the AgResearch team discovered an even more effective endophyte, AR37, which provides broader insect resistance and increased productivity.

Ms milk

Not all scientific advances have been enthusiastically accepted. In 2000, AgResearch received the go-ahead for a five-year field trial to insert an artificial human gene into dairy cattle. The aim was to produce the human myelin basic protein in cow’s milk for potential use in multiple sclerosis research. However, New Zealand’s first transgenic calves were born at a time when the country was focused on the Royal Commission on Genetic Modification. The furore over the calves was such that one of the original scientists, Phil L’Huillier, quit New Zealand. The cattle, however, remain in containment and AgResearch has approval to study these animals for a further four years.

Future foods

The idea of new technologies in food, and genetic modification technologies in particular, remains controversial, as Tony Conner, a senior scientist with Crop and Food Research and Lincoln University, has found. Conner’s team had seedlings in a field trial of insect-resistant GM potatoes destroyed by anti-GM campaigners. One of the major issues was the transfer of genes across wide taxonomic boundaries, and Conner’s research focus has shifted to developing gene constructs made of material from the host plant.

Fertile genes

Back in 1968, a sharp-eyed farmer helped start research into the Inverdale fertility gene. Derek Weir, who farmed on the Banks Peninsula, noticed he had a prolific breeder in his flock of sheep. This particular Romney ewe produced 33 lambs in 11 years. Hearing about a research project on good breeders, Weir offered up his ewe to the AgResearch team. A281, as that ewe was known, became one of the stars of the research programme, which began in 1979. After years of painstaking breeding, AgResearch scientist George Davis proved that a gene on the X-chromosome – the Inverdale gene – was causing the multiple births.

By Kim Griggs

Medals and awards

Enoch Bruce Levy: was knighted in 1953

Frederick McDowall: OBE, FRSNZ, Australian Society of Dairy Technology Gold Medal

Hugh Whitehead: OBE, FRSNZ, Australian Society of Dairy Technology Gold Medal

Further reading and websites

Enoch Bruce Levy biography – Dictionary of New Zealand Biography website

Frederick Henry McDowall biography – Dictionary of New Zealand Biography website

Hugh Robinson Whitehead biography – Dictionary of New Zealand Biography website

AgResearch website

Crop and Food Research website

Permission of the National Library of New Zealand Te Puna Mātauranga o Aotearoa must be obtained before any reuse of this image

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