Breaking In Gorse-Infested Tussock At Okuku
In the last five years Mr W. F. Ashe and his sons, Neville and Winston, have made an impressive start in bringing into production a large block of raw native tussock at Okuku. On this harsh, stony land—some boulders are twice the size of a man’s head—-they have already doubled their carrying capacity to a level of a ewe to the acre, and nearly half the property is still untouched.
A field day held by the Ohoka and Districts branch of Federated Farmers this week on the property showed something of the potential of this type of country, much of it badly infested with gorse.
In 1958 there were more than 200 acres of dense gorse oo the 1078 acres of freehold. A tractor mounted rotary slasher is used to chop it down and after drying out for six to nine months it is fired The money which would be spent if the gorse was sprayed is better used improving the carrying capacity on the rest of the farm with fertiliser, Mr Ashe believes. Regrowth spraying will probably have to come, he says, but as yet it has not been done.
The burnt over gorse is treated the same as the clear tussock ground and is Hoped up with the chisel plough. Even with hard surfaced steel points on the chisel plough it cost 2s 6d an acre in point replacement. On the tractor a set of tyres lasted barely two years and with the damage to the tyre carcase it was not worth relugging. A new rear tyre and a new front tyre had to be bought each year. In June When the ground is saturated it is given two cuts with the chisel plough and stumo jump harrows. This has the effect of opening the ground up without the risk of windblow-. It is then left until mid-January w-hen 2cwt of molybdic superphosphate is applied and it is given another two cuts with the chisel plough Seed is broadcast from a
drill with the coulters and down pipes removed. This is followed by harrowing and the stones are then flattened into the ground with a heavy roller.
Lime is not put on at this stage because of the excessive wear and tear which would be experienced with the truck, and this is left for about 12 months. cocksfoot, red. white and subterranean clovers. Turnip and chou moellier seed are also included in the mixture. Sulphur After seeding, sulphur superphosphate is used for subsequent dressings as the land has shown marked responses to sulphur. On, several of the paddocks the path of the spreader can be traced. The finer sulphur particles have apparently fallen in a narrower swathe than the rest of the fertiliser and there are alternate strips of vigorous and less vigorous growth. A marginal cobalt deficiency has also been found on the property and is being countered by a light dressing of cobalt in the fertiliser. A series of trials carried out on the property by Mr R. Milne, advisory officer of the Department of Agriculture at Rangiora, with whom the Ashes have worked in close collaboration, has resulted in a change in improvement practices and ' a swing towards oversowing with topdressing as a means
of pushing development ahead faster. Whereas the chisel ploughing and seeding costs about £lO an acre, the same amount of money can be used to topdress and seed about three times that area While the gains are not as great, a bigger area can be handled and when the time does come to break up this land it will have a higher fertility and should respond more readily. The oversowing is done by topping up the hopper on the manure spreader with seed and letting it trickle down into the spinner. Burning off is not done because with the summer heat the natural cover of tussocks is necessary to protect the seedlings.
Tlie mixture broadcast consists of perennial ryegrass. In 1956 when the Ashes bought the property they carried 550 ewes and 100 hoggets. The next year they broke in 75 acres and with the new grass were able to step numbers up to 615 ewes and 160 hoggets. In 1958 105 acres were cultivated with a similar gain in the flock, and the next year 140 acres were brought in. Oversowing was first used in 1960 and 125 acres were heated with another 75 acres being chisel ploughed. The ewe flock was then 875 with 340 ewe hoggets. This year they have 1140 ewes. 380 hoggets, 60 acres chisel ploughed and 40 acres oversown.
Of the 1078 acres of the freehold there are now only 458 acres unimproved in addition to tlie 175 acres of leasehold riverbed.
“When we bought the property we thought if we could get the carrying capacity up to a ewe to the acre we would be doing all right. We thought that might take 10 years, or even more. We have now reached the stage where we have a ewe to the acre and we’ve only started. “However, we’ve how reached the stage where we should consolidate our gains. This year we will probably oversow only about 50 acres and will concentrate on fortifying the areas already improved with sulphur super,” Mr Ashe said.
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Press, Volume C, Issue 29500, 29 April 1961, Page 7
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885Breaking In Gorse-Infested Tussock At Okuku Press, Volume C, Issue 29500, 29 April 1961, Page 7
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