CATTLE ON THE MOUNTAINS

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26396, 14 April 1951, Page 5

CATTLE ON THE MOUNTAINS

Lord Lovat’s Scheme Succeeds PROFIT FROM COUNTRY ONCE EMPTY An increasing number of store beef cattle are now coming off the mountainous country of Great Britain, largely because of the activities of Lord Lovat, who is as highly regarded as an agriculturist as he was as a soldier. Lord Lovat spent a few hours in Christchurch at the end of last week during a very hurried visit to this country. He judged the Shorthorns at the Sydney Show, and, as he says, “took French leave” to make the trip to New Zealand. Some years ago. Lord Lovat began breeding commercial beef cattle on mountainous country in the north of Scotland, to prove his contention that cattle, which once occupied the high country ofrßritain, could again be run there, and could produce a most useful contribution to the supply of home grown beet for a nation hard pressed for meat. During his visit here, he said that the enterprise had been profitable to him every year but this last year, when Scotland had an exceptionally severe winter, and his losses of stock ran him into a loss of money. His activities on the mountains of Scotland were the main reason for the British Ministry of Agriculture instituting a system of subsidies on cows run on mountains without housing, or more than the minimum of hand feeding, and agriculturists in many parts of the United Kingdom are following his example. Lord Lovat’s description of the country on which he is carrying on this" form of farming makes it look much harder for cattle production than any of the New Zealand high country, and his activities have, indeed, attracted a lot of interest in New Zealand. The country on which the cattle are carried is perhaps not high by our standards, but 'it has special difficulties. The winters are very severe, and at least three months of snow and ice can be expected. Only three months of the year are reasonably good. The rainfall is 60 inches. Heavy Peat The soil is mainly a heavy peat, and the cover heather and bracken, except in the valleys, where there is some timber. The soil is so wet that development as it is generally understood is impossible. The main obstacle is that it is so soft that implements cannot be got on to it, so that drainage, the primary necessity in any improvement, cannot be undertaken economically. The soil is sour, and Without drainage, shows no response at all to fertilisers, or even to lime. Trial areas which have been drained have been found to need something like four tons of lime to the acre as the basis for any scheme of improvement. Two hundred years ago, before the estate was turned over to a deer park and shooting estate, crofters lived among the hills, and the remains of the crofts are still to be seen. Usually they are enclosed, and six or eight acres in extent, but they have long since gone back to bracken. Some improvement has been possible on the crofts, where the bracken and moss has been removed, some reseeding attempted, and the land limed. Some control of second growth and build-up of fertility has been achieved by the cattle themselves, which seek these smak areas of relatively plentiful feed. lArd Lovat argued that as these mountains had once supported cattle, they could be made to do so again, and he has shown that they can, and that they can support cattle profitably. On his 30,000-acre estate, he runs 500 breeding cows. They are mainly Highland and Galloway cows or crossbreds in which there is Highland or Galloway blood, These cattle are run with beef Shorthorii, or sometimes Hereford bulls. They are hardy cattle, and lie out all year round. The land carries no clovers, and the main forage plants are very poor grasses, such as Nardus, Molina, deer grass, and cotton grass, which in their season give a little grazing. April, when grass growth begins, and there through the three good months 2r summer, June, July, August. From October onward they move down toward the valleys where they can get some shelter, and in the worst of the Winter they are given a little hay, which* is taken up to the valleys by tractors over the lew available tracks. The cows calVe during February, March and April, and after calving are given a little silage. They calved in the snow this year. One bull is run with every 30 cows, and calving per centages are remarkably good. The average for the estate is 85 per cent, of calves* marked. The calves are sold ?s weaners and bring about £25 a head from lowlands farmers who make them into beet

- Meeting Breeders ’ Lora Lovat's main reason for coming to this country was to get into touch with as many breeders of livestock.as possible, particularly with breeders of British beef cattle. His organisation, the Anglo-Scottish Cattle Company, is the biggest exporter of pedigree British livestock, and his visit here was primarily to find out what he could in his very limited time, of the needs of this market. He gathered, he said, that the System of importing British livestock was not altogether satisfactory, and that its difficulties dissuaded a lot of breeders from trying to get good British animals into the country. There seemed to be some doubt in the minds of New Zealand breeders about just how to go about getting cattle from England, and it appeared that unsuitable animals had been landed in the past. This led to disappointment and discouragement of local breeders, and forced-them to rely on locgl resources, which was a bad thing, as it might lead to inbreeding, and certainly led to loss of touch with British breeders, who were still leading the world in breeding beef cattle. Lord Lovat said that he was not a poor man, arid his organisation was primarily concerned with seeing that the right kind of livestock went on to the right kind of country. The ideal way of buying was, of course, for the New Zealahd breeder to go to Britain and make his own selection, but, failing that, buying was really quite a simple matter. His visit here was to get to know requirements of individual breeders as far as possible, so that points of weakness in individual herds could be strengthened, or strong points retained by the right importations. He was here as a person who would be doing the selection, bu| naturally he could not study individual herds adequately in the time available. If necessary, experts could be sent out to carry on the work.

Lord Lovat was outspoken in his criticism of certain agents who had been responsible for sending or bringing out livestock of poor quality. Most of his few days in New Zealand were spent in conferences .with groups,of breeders of beef cattle, but he was able to see something of New Zealand farming. Much of it, he believed, was in advance of farming in the Old Country, and what he had seen of New Zealand sheep indicated that they were better than those of Britain. The Romneys he saw in.the North Island, he said, were very much better than the English sheep, and were practically a new breed. Lord Lovat is a leading breeder of Shorthorns, Aberdeen Angus, Galloways, Cheviot sheep, large white, and Wessex Saddleback pigs. Lady Lovat breeds Jerseys.