FARM AND STATION
High Country Experiment Returns A Profit The need for extension workers to be abb to teU tbe high eoontry . runholder what country be should develop to Sidun, the boot return an i his money was stressed by Mr David MeLeod when B field day was held by the North Canterbury Catchment Board last Saturday on Ms Grasmere | property at Cass. Mr MeLeod sajd that some country which to his eye had seemed j to be the most unpromising had in fact proved most productive in trials.
The field day was held primarily to look at a block of 1250 acres ranging in altitude from 2000 ft to 5688 ft at the summit of Mount Bailey with the upper limit of vegetation at about 4000 ft. Fescue tussock covers the fans, downs and lower mountain slopes and snow tussock grows at above 3000 ft. An accidental fire in the midst of an Intensely dry period in January, 1956, scorched this country bare, and in July that year in collaboration with the Catchment Board and Soil Conservation and Rivers Conti-ol Council Mr McLeod had this area oversown and topdressed from the air and since then over three years parts of the area have been retopdressed. Last week-end Mr McLeod cautiously estimated that after five years this area was now returning in profit £7OO more a year than before the fire but in contrast to this he showed the visitors a block of 800 acres, which has had to be oversown twice, where he is at present out of pocket to the extent of £2OO annually. Mr McLeod said that the
1250-acre experiment was important because it was big enough to enable the impact of the grazing animal to be studied. It also included a number of different geological formations—hill country that had been ice covered, morainal downs and moun tain faces little affected by erosion.
Not Typical But what had happened on this country would not necessarily happen on high country generally, and even on quite similar country, he said. The fire had burnt it so bare that every clover seed dropped on it had struck. Farmers who contemplated development would not submit their country to such a scorching. And in 1957-58 there had been an exceptional rainfall—36 inches in three months with fantastic growth and also a bad infestation of porina followed by a series of dry years with 1959-60 being the worst on record.
In July, 1956, 2cwt of 44/46 superphosphate and 2oz of sodium molybdate were applied from the air with 3}lb of white clover, 1 Jib of alsike. Sib of Montgomery red clover and Jib of seconds of Montgomery red on the fans and downs (a total of 61b of clover) and 21b of white clover, Jib of alsike, Jib of Montgomery red clover, and Jib of Montgomery red seconds, with 21b of cocksfoot (3Jlb of clover, and 21b of cocksfoot) on the mountain slopes. The cost of this initial treatment was just under £3OOO. Since then 396 acres were topdressed with Ijcwt of 44/ 46 super in 1958, 403 acres with IJcwt of sulphurised super (4001 b of sulphur to the ton) in 1959. and 396 acres with IJcwt of the same type of sulphur super last year. This has raised total expenditure on seeding and manure to £4533. of which Government subsidies have amounted to about £2500. Mr McLeod said it was difficult to make a pronouncement on the economics of such a programme, because in the high country there were so many imponderables —the impossibility of assessing winter as compared With summer grazing. Improvement in stocking, and its effect on production on other blocks and death rates. His younger sheep were bigger
and better than before, which would have the effect at raising the general standard of the fiocfc and reducing death rates both at the lamb stage and later. In view of these difficulties, it was as well that his figures should be treated as a guide rather than being absolutely accurate. For his economic analysis Mr McLeod said that he would treat the initial expenditure of £3OOO as borrowed monev. although in some cases it might be done out of taxable income, but there was no way of measuring to what extent that could be used. Originally 700 wether hoggets had been running on the country for nine months. With these sheep shearing 5 J lb of wool worth 3s 6d a lb the share of wool production attributable to this country was £5OO and in addition there was the contribution of this block to the ultimate sale value of surplus stock. Wethers were kept for four years so that any age group of wethers in a year contributed a quarter of this amount. At 40s a head for surplus wethers the original contribution of this block was £230, bringing total annual value of production to £730. Present Stocking Under present circumstances 900 ewes were running on the country from October to February. 800 hoggets from March to May and last winter 500 ewes from June to September. This year it was proposed to winter 700 hoggets. Before topdressing there had been no cattle. Now there was an average of 60 cows from October to January and 40 calves from April to September, with hay being fed to them. With these stocking rates, wool production amounted to £B5O including £660 off the ewes and £l9O from hoggets. In addition the block’s share of proceeds from the’sale of lambs amounted to about £9OO, including £330 for the sale of 400 lambs valued at 40s grazed for five months and £6OO for 400 cull lambs sold at 30s (the five-year average). In 1959-60 when ewes were grazed on the block from lambing to weaning, 353 lambs were culled out of a mob of 900 ewes and 828 lambs at weaning on March 2 The remainder were kept
for replacements. Of the 353, 200 or 56 per cent, were drafted as fats and it was conservatively estimated that from the whole mob the drafter could have taken 60 per cent, off the mothers. The contribution on this block to the sale of surplus stock was now £lBO.
For every hoof of cattle wintered on the property the return was reckoned to be £7. said Mr McLeod. On this basis the return for 60 cows carried for four months was £l4O and the worth of grazing the calves was put at £60 —a total of £2OO from cattle. This made a total Income from the block of £2130 or £l4OO more than before the fire. To secure this there was an interest charge of £l5O at 5 per cent, on £3OOO and an annual expenditure on topdressing of £550 bringing total annual charges to £7OO and leaving a surplus of £7OO, out of which repayments on the £3OOO would have to be met. Subsidies Mr McLeod said that some people had been inclined to be critical because Govern ment subsidies were being paid on a programme that was apparently a success. In the Waimakariri he said that there were low hills which in relatively recent times geologically had been scraped over by ice and these were still bearing the marks of the glacial period. This country was among the best in the central gorge and if there was to be substantial development it was necessary that, it be looked at. He had, in view of the results on the other block, decided to take a big risk and undertake the development of his Long Hill country. In actual fact he had been out of pocket on Long Hill but the’subsidies he had received for the other project had helped to pay for the Long Hill experiment. Before treatment of 800
acres of the Long Hill block in 1957 it carried 400 ewes for about 10 months and about 20 cattle. That year 4Jlb of white, alsike and Montgomery red clovers were spread from the air with 2cwt of ordinary super. The cost was £1874 but results were not nearly so successful as on the other experimental area and in places it was disappointing with the clover not establishing as well as had been expected. Hence in 1959 part of the country was redone with 21b of white clover and 2cwt of sulphur super (4001 b of sulphur) and in 1960 with 41b of white clover and 2cwt of sulphur super. The extra cost involved had been £B4O and £920, bringing total expenditure to £3634. Deficit This country was now carrying about 600 ewes for 10 months with 30 cattle for the year. The extra return was about £6BO for an additional average expenditure of £&80. leaving a deficit of about £2OO. Clover is. however, now coming away well and there seems to be reasonable prospects of success here. Referring to the main experiment, Mr R. D. Dick, chief soil conservator of the Catchment Board, who initiated and planned the project, said that even with the doubling and trebling of stocking from one ewe to 5.4 acres to one ewe to 1.8 acres, vegetation was greater now than when measurements were first taken after the fire, in the first year after treatment 80 per cent, of the ground was covered and most recent observations showed the cover to extend over 88 per ceni of the ground. In the first year clover accounted for slightly more than 20 per cent, of the vegetation but now it was down to 10 to 15 per cent Of the clovers alone it was white clover that was per-
sisting bes' and regerminating. Alsike. though plentiful in the first two years, had since decreased greatly and red clover was also decreasing.
Mr iJfck said that seeding could be done into country provided the existing cover was not too dense and Mr R. M. D. Johnson, chairman of the Catchment Board, recalled that, early in the experiment it' had seemed that clover establishment was best in an area that had not been burned. This area included broken and bare country, said Mr McLeod. Mr McLeod also suggested that grazing, provided it was not too heavy, was not harmful to the young growing clovers. He said that stock did not seem to touch them. If. however, it was necessary to secure seeding of the clover, spelling would be needed, but there was a danger tnat subsequent rank growth would invite porina damage.
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Press, Volume C, Issue 29500, 29 April 1961, Page 6
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1,740FARM AND STATION Press, Volume C, Issue 29500, 29 April 1961, Page 6
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