Shearing After Lambing On Ashburton Farm

Press, Volume C, Issue 29506, 6 May 1961, Page 7

Shearing After Lambing On Ashburton Farm

On Flaxmere, the 1160 acre property of Mr W. F. Mulligan, at Maronan, about nine miles from Ashburton, all sheep, including ewes, are shorn immediately after lambing.

Mr Mulligan told members of the Ashburton branch of Federated Farmers’ who visited his property last week that since he had gone over to this practice in the past two seasons he had had very good early drafts of lambs. He said that he had begun shearing at this time two seasons ago when he had shearers on the property waiting for something to do and he had the time himself to give to the job. Mr H. E. Garrett, reader in farm management at Canterbury Agricultural College, said he personally did not favour shearing between lambing and drafting, but if it was done soon after lambing, when lambs were young, and was carried out quickly and efficiently, there would probably be 100 per cent, ■remothering, but if there was la cold snap at this stage i there could be difficulty. Lambing Mr Mulligan had 2740 Romney cross ewes mated last year to the Romney ram or the Dorset Hora with replacements kept from the Romney mating. Lambing begins in early August and the lambing percentage at 103 per cent. Mr Mulligan admits is low, but he is prepared to forego some percentage to secure early drafts. One important reason for this is that lambs do not do as well on his heavy land as on his light land and if early drafts can be taken from the light land other lambs can be moved to this country from the heavier land. The property includes about 560 acres of light land. 300 acres of medium land and 300 acres of heavy land. Last season 945 lambs were drafted fat on November 9 at 32.45 lb. This represented 82 per cent, of lambs running on 375 acres. By December 6 a further 740 had gone off to the works at between 29.61 b and 30.41 b. Mr Garrett said he expected the lambing percentage this year would be better as the rams had been put out a week later, but for a breed that was slow in coming into season he still felt that putting the rams out about March 8 to 10 was on the early side. Thrift Mr C. P Whatman, instructor in agriculture in Ashburton, said that if Mr Mulligan had not had the light land he might have had to look at the possibility of using selenium to improve the thrift of the lambs on his heavier country. Use of sulphur super, too. might improve stock thrift as well as grass and clover production on these pastures, and on country newly broken in out of swamp he said that a topdressing of copperised super might be beneficial provided copper application was kept within reason. Another aspect of Mr Mulligan’s operation w’hich aroused interest was his statement that over 10 years he has done little with sheep suffering from footrot. He may treat a sheep showing very bad footrot but it is un-

usual for a mob to be brought in for treatment. It is his contention that bringing in a mob may only spread the infection but his main reason for not giving more attention to footrot is that the work involved in present methods of treatment is not worthwhile. Footrot Mr Garrett said it was an observation that sheep ing from footrot did not do well or clip well but to secure the results in wool production and lamb weights obtained by Mr Mulligan the indication was that footrot was not a serious factor—the average wool weight for 3498 sheep shorn including 2709 ewes, 758 hoggets and 34 rams was 10.41 b a head. Over the last 10 years Mr Mulligan has brought into production 200 acres of country which was formerly in flax and rushes. Initial expenditure on drainage amounted to £lOOO with two miles of open drains being cut. At the rate of about a half an acre a day the flax has been turned in with a swamp plough and following discing, the land has been sown in an initial crop of turnips or oats. Annual cost of maintaining the drains is about £5O. Si?me of this country is still showing the signs of rawness and is not producing as well as it might but visitors to the property were sure that with liming, cultivation, possible use of copper and clover it would improve. Cropping Mr Mulligan said that over the last five years crops on the heavy land had only produced 17 per cent, of the farm’s income. This was possibly not high enough in view of the value of the land. Last harvest 11 acres of Hilgendorf yielded an average of 35.4 bushels, 62 acres of Aotea 40 bushels. 17 acres of peas 26 bushels and 50 acres of perennial ryegrass 38 bushels. It has been Mr Mulligan’s practice to confine cropping to the heavier land as the medium land is stony. The land goes from grass in to wheat with possibly a crop of peas and after a fallow bark into grass. Mr Garrett and Mr Whatman suggested a crop of linseed in the rotation with two following crops of wheat. Mr Whatman said that linseed was a reasonably reliable crop with a wider general application than peas and would return from £2O to £4O an acre. Mr Mulligan now grows 50 acres of lucerne on the better land to give him the 5000 bales of hay needed for winter feed. Mr Whatman suggested growing a larger area on the lighter land instead of on the heavy land but Mr Mulligan protested that he needed this land for lamb fattening. A paddock a year is broken up on the light land area and resown. It is ploughed after lambing and sown down about February 1 with a bushel of ryegrass and 3tb of white clover and three ounces of York Globe turnips Cocksfoot has also been added to the mixture. A ton of lime is applied to al! pastures with sulphur super

being tried on light land this year. Mr Garrett said that applications of nearer 2cwt than lewt of super and possibly sulphur super was now favoured for best results on light land. Mr Whatman said that from their experience from IJcwt upwards of ordinary super was favoured, for the lighter land with possibly sulphur super on the heavier land. On Flaxmere DDT super is applied in the first year after sowing only. Mr Garrett said he would like to see it used again—in the third year—and a watch should even be kept for grubs in the first year when occasionally a pasture could be lost. About three-quarters of the farm is reserved for autumnsaved grass.