Handling High Country

Press, Volume CV, Issue 30977, 5 February 1966, Page 8

Handling High Country

Doubt whether improvement of tussock country was really reducing run-off was expressed during a panel discussion on run plans at the Hakatere woolshed last Saturday when a field day was held on Mount Possession by the high-country section of Mid-Canterbury Federated Farmers.

The aim of a run plan was defined at one stage as being to increase herbage production and reduce run-off, with increased production where that was possible. Mr D. G. Reynolds, farm advisory officer of the Department of Agriculture at Fairlie, recalled that under conditions of low fertility on the downlands there had been considerable run-off. but when three sheep to the acre were put on to this country this problem had vanished. Mr Murchison, of Lake Coleridge, however contended that run-off was quicker on the paddocks. He wondered whether the Catchment Board knew what it was driving at, said Mr L. P. Chapman. The real floods occurred after about three or four days of rain when the country had reached its absorptive peak. He was concerned that on his country when topdressing and stocking with cattle was practised the tussocks started to disappear. He wondered whether they were reducing the runoff problem on these hills by topdressing. It was run-off that was all-important, he said. Mr R. D. Dick, of the North Canterbury Catchment Board, said that if by heavy stocking the tussock was obliterated the anchor would be lost on this country. Mr Arthur Rowell, chief! soil conservator with the South Canterbury Catchment I

Board, had earlier explained that the aim of destocking the problem Big Hill block on Mount Possession was to stop erosion and promote regeneration of the country. There was hardly any of the block under 3000 ft, he said, and there was only snow tussock on it. It was going back', he said. The station manager, Mr Chaffey, said he had never seen a creek which drained off Big Hill in a discoloured state.

Mr Wilson, chief pastoral lands officer of the Lands and Survey Department, said the aim of his department was to preserve the tussock, while improving between the tussocks on suitable country.

Questioned about the need to close up this country at all, Mr Rowell said that this problem had to be looked at in the light of the Ashburton river where there was a costly control scheme in the lower reaches.

The Big Hill block had been carrying 2225 ewe equivalents on 32,400 acres, he said, and Mr Chaffey said that this would be worth £4500 in income from wool. Mr Wilson said that the Lands Department had over the years been seeking to obtain "a balance in winter and summer country on runs. In the past the balance had been preserved by judicious burning, which had sometimes not been so judicious. It had. however, been a tool to this

end. If there was no burning there had to be fencing but it could be hard to fence on this sort of country. “Fencing to our mind is one of the best methods of obtaining a better balance through the run,” said Mr Wilson. “Fencing will always carry its weight.” Stock limitations on runs were based on the natural grazing, said Mr Wilson, and if a runholder could improve his country and could show that it would carry more stock he would be allowed to do this without extra charge—it would be a reward to him. But this right might not be transferred to a new proprietor of the property, and indeed the improver himself could lose the right to put on extra stock if the country went back again. The Lands Department, he said, was right behind the introduction of cattle into the back country. It was recognised that it relieved the need for burning but it involved problems in fencing and with neighbours. On the application for an increase in stock, including cattle, on Mount Possession, Mr Wilson said that this application had been a little early—the ink had barely dried on the run plan—but a cattle increase of almost 200 per cent to 1000 head had been allowed here. Mr Wilson said that cattle stocking limitations were now being added to leases. Under conditions of heavy stocking with sheep he said that cattle could eat sheep feed and get to the position where they were starting to pull out tussocks. It was thought that a combination of cattle and sheep was likely to give the best result.