From 300 To 4000 Sheep On Light Land

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31119, 23 July 1966, Page 9

From 300 To 4000 Sheep On Light Land

An extraordinary transformation has been wrought on 1582 acres of light land adjoining the Eyrewell forest on the north bank of the Waimakariri river in the last 10 toll years by Mr O. M. Prattley and his two sons, Messrs A. T. and P. M. Prattley.

When the property was purchased 11 years ago this coming August for a few pounds an acre, some 1200 acres in one block, was in manuka up to 15ft high. There were only three paddocks and in the first year, although only 300 sheep were carried, even some of these died of starvation. The outlook was grim and some people openly told Mr Prattley that they doubted his wisdom in taking up this property.

A year ago the Prattleys finished clearing up the manuka. The only manuka now left is providing a little shelter along some of the fence lines. And today more than 4000 sheep are on the place—some 13 to 14 times as many as in the first year of occupation.

The manuka was tackled in various ways, for at the time that they started on it Mr Prattley says that they had difficulty in finding anyone who could give them much advice.

A swamp plough was used Initially but the manuka sticks had to be pulled out by hand after the plough—this was hard and slow work. A chopper did good work on the smaller and lighter manuka. It was used on some 300 acres that was subsequently ploughed or chisel ploughed. The chopper skirted round the bigger scrub and this was pulled out with a chain on a tractor. Lengths of railway lines were welded together and working up and down on the same line they proved effective in pulling out all but the whippy manuka. The material pulled out was gathered into heaps for burning with a buckrake —actually three or four sets of tines were worn out in the process. Then the country was chisel ploughed. In the first season out of manuka turnips were sown, or if it was too late for turnips greenfeed was put in. Sometimes turnips and grass were sown directly out of manuka and on other occasions a pasture mixture was included with the turnips in the second year. No difference was noted in the subsequent pasture where areas were grassed down in the second year as compared with the first. In some instances patches of ground would grow no turnips at all in the first season but there was a good coverage by the second year.

The pasture mixture used included 1J bushels of peren-

• nial ryegrass, 3 to 41b of sub- ■ terranean clover, not less than i 21b of white clover and an i unspecified amount of trefoil, i The latter has proved a useful plant in filling up gaps i in the pasture and has been i found to come away well in the spring if there are a few ■ showers. The Prattleys were either given quantities of it or bought it for a mere 6d a lb or so. Incidentally all seed has been broadcast on the property and this is believed to have resulted in a much better cover than would otherwise have been obtained. Prior to sowing, a half to three-quarters of a ton of lime was spread to the acre. Also a IJcwt of mainly molybdic superphosphate was broadcast ahead of the drill and another lewt of super was sown with the turnips. Topdressing of all pastures has been at the rate of not less than lewt of super a year and some copperised super has been used as there has been some evidence of a copper deficiency with some sway back in lambs. A start has been made to spread a little more lime, with a ton to the acre being used last year on a paddock due to go into lucerne, and some more will be used on this paddock before it is sown. Lucerne Some 80 acres are in lucerne, about half of this being five years old. The 80 acres is in the one block and last year it produced 2300 bales of hay. In the course of develop- : ment operations up to 250 acres was sown to turnips or . turnips and grass in the one , year. Now a start is being , made to work round the i country a second time with , a paddock now in turnips , again. This year about 200 < acres are in turnips for win- , ter feed.

A pleasing feature of the country today, now clear of all manuka, is the park-like appearance that it has taken on as a result of a few selfsown pine trees having been left scattered over the farm. Quite apart from improving the appearance of this country, which would otherwise look bare and uninteresting because of its extreme flatness, Mr Prattley says that these trees provide very use-

ful shelter for the sheep from the blistering sun in the summer.

With two water races of the Waimakariri-Ashley Water Supply Board running the length of the property, the farm is well served with water. There is water in every paddock. From three when the property was taken over the number of paddocks has increased to 17. Paddocks, however, still range in size from 50 to 150 acres. Subdivision so far carried out has involved erection of between nine and 10 miles of fences. These are all netting fences as Mr Prattley says that they are the cheapest and quickest to erect. The emphasis has been on bringing the country into production at the earliest stage and for the first time in the coming summer will a pasture be sown on its own after two crops of turnips. This is being done as sometimes the subterranean clover, which is one of the mainstays of pastures on this light country, has been checked, where after feeding in the winter there has been a dry October and the clover has not recovered sufficiently to reseed well. Actually the soil cover on this country is very thin—no more than three or four inches over clay and then shingle. But it is excellent sheep country, and the tendency can be for sheep and lambs just to do a little too well at times, recently involving, for instance, an over-fat problem in lambs.

Some 666 acres of the property is now owned by Mr

Prattley’s son, Mr A. T. Prattley, but as a whole the farm is now carrying something more than 4000 sheep. Among these are 600 ewe hoggets and 100 wether hoggets and the rest are mainly ewes. Mr O. M. Prattley has about 1000 Merino ewes which are crossed with the Border Leicester ram to produce Border Leicester Merino cross ewes. These crossbred ewes, when mated with Dorset Hom rams, have given outstanding results on Mr Prattley’s Cust property. In the most recent season he tailed close to 150 per cent of lambs from 530 ewes and was able to take about 125 per cent of lambs in the first draft Three years ago when they were about 10 to 12 weeks of age he was able to draft 333 lambs from 250 of these ewes—this was 133 per cent off the mothers—and they averaged 32.471 b. Because sheep do so well on this country and grow out well, in buying halfbred and Corriedale ewes for flock replacements Mr Prattley does not place much importance on condition. These ewes are bought in at ages varying from two-tooths to four and five-year-olds. They are mated with the Border Leicester ram and the aim is to retain the ewe lambs, but two seasons ago in the drought the teeth of the ewe lambs were worn down before the winter and they had to be quitted. Ewe hoggets are mated on the property and up to an 80 per cent lambing has been obtained from them. Most of the wether lambs

are drafted fat off the mothers. This season none went under 301 b and some drafts ranged up to 361 b and 371 b and possibly even 381 b, but in drier years weights have been much less. In addition in this most prolific season 1500 bought in lambs have also been handled between this property and Mr Prattley’s 150-acre holding at Cust Weaning of remaining lambs takes place before shearing in January. From a handful of no more than 10 bales to start off with, the wool dip reached the 100 bale mark for the first time this year. Lambs receive pulpy kidney vaccine and selenium at tailing and are drenched with thiabendazole at weaning, and ewe hoggets are drenched with thiabendazole and given selenium prior to mating. With fertility increasing on this once poor, light land, it is being found that when paddocks are set stocked with ewes and lambs the numbers that a paddock will take can be gradually increased each year. The paddocks are getting better all the time. Almost all the development work on the property has been done by Mr Prattley and his two sons. This includes carting and spreading lime and super and now more than 100 tons of superphosphate are used a year. Buildings erected on the property include two hay barns to hold 3000 and 2000 bales and a woolshed converted for this purpose from an old Ministry of Works building.