ART OF STOCKING HILL COUNTRY FARM LANDS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 5, 29 June 1949, Page 5

ART OF STOCKING HILL COUNTRY FARM LANDS

(By E. R. Marryatt, Fields Instructor, Whakatane)

Profitable hill-country farming is largely a matter of sensible stocking with cattle and sheep. Where errors in the ratio of cattle to sheep are made they are generally errors of overstocking with sheep. “The rougher the country the greater should be the proportion of cattle to sheep” should be regarded as an axiom. Cattle are necessary to keep the pasture in a condition suitable for grazing by sheep and the question is, “should the hill-country farmer limit his cattle to just sufficient to control the pasture for. sheep or would more cattle improve his country?” Because cattle do not graze as closely as do sheep the carrying of more cattle than the minimum necessary for control of pasture will result in a reduction in “run off” and in drying-out and so, in erosion generally, and may result also in increased " pasture production to some extent, but if so, at the same time will result in some reduction of clovers through smother, and without clovers, hill-country is worthless. More Than Sheep

On the other hand more sheep will give a greater cash return per acre and the market is more stable for sheep than for cattle. When a drought or hard winter catches hillcountry farmers with too many cattle many of them have to be sold at low prices and replaced in the next spring at high prices. Grazing more cattle than are necessary to control the pasture for sheep is therefore not economical and the increased profit from carrying the optimum number of sheep may be re-invested in topdressing for more clover for better; pastures for still more sheep. The ideal ratio of cattle to sheep, limiting the cattle carried, as it does, to just sufficient for good control of pasture for sheep, varies from farm to farm on the same class of country and from season to season, but on third-class hillcountry is about 1 cattle beast to every 3 or 4 sheep; on second-class, 1 to 6 or 7; and on first-class hillcountry 1 beast to every 10 sheep. These figures are based on what is successful on farms which are managed and grazed efficiently but on many farms for various reasons, say, insufficient sub-division, the best grazing management is not possible. On these farms it is safer to decrease the number of sheep and to increase the number of cattle.

No Fixed Ratio So variable is the hill-country of New Zealand that no definite or fixed ratios of cattle to sheep can be given to cover all conditions but it is well to remember that under all conditions, undergrazing of hillcountry is preferable to •overgrazing.