FODDER CROPS ON PENINSULA Le Bons Bay Project

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28980, 22 August 1959, Page 8

FODDER CROPS ON PENINSULA Le Bons Bay Project

'T'HERE are signs that farmers on Banks Penx insula are relearning the art of cultivation. Small patches of supplementary winter feed have not been uncommon on the Le Bons Bay hills this winter and after last summer’s drought they have been very valuable.

It has almost become a tradition among Peninsula farmers that the soil should not be disturbed lest it should be blown or washed away but Mr R. W. Armstrong, of Armack, Le Bons Bay, now in his third year of supplementary cropping, has not encountered such dire results and it has enabled him to weather one of the worst droughts this century without serious difficulty.

A returned serviceman, Mr Armstrong took up Le Bons Bay country after World War 11. He has about 1000 acres rising to about 1800 ft. About a third of it gets little sun in the winter and another third is on the cold side. The average annual rainfall' is about 40in but in May alone this year it amounted to 25 inches. Mr Armstrong says that his venture into supplementary cropping was largely inspired by the stimulating experience he had when he attended a short course at Canterbury Agricultural College after >the war and a subsequent winter he spent in Southland. In addition to the college, he had also i received help from the Department of Agriculture. I Though convinced of its place ! in the farming programme on the Peninsula, Mr Armstrong says that common sense must be used in selection of country for supplementary cropping and in trying as far as possible to avoid having the seed bed prepared when winds are likely to be worst. He has seen a little soil being blown off cultivated country but later crops have demonstrated that the country had not suffered. Clearing Logs This year Mr Armstrong has between 60 and 70 acres under the plough. In its undisturbed state his country is dotted with broad leaf logs. These are readily bulldozed into heaps by a light tractor fitted with a reversed grade blade. In a day and a half to two days Mr Peter Johnston, whose agricultural experience has been invaluable in the development of the property, recently cleared eight acres which is next on the list for breaking in. The practice is to plough this new country to a depth of about eight inches in early August and to work it up again about the end of October or early November for sowing. Two hundredweight of straight superphosphate is worked into the ground before drilling and another lewt of reverted super is sown with the seed. When cropping began three years ago a 10 acre block below the community airstrip at the top of Le Bons Bay at an altitude of 1800 ft was put into swedes and chou moellier and six acres on the ridge between Hickory and Le Bons Bay was given the same sort of treatment. Early this year after two seasons of supplementary cropping the airstrip block was sown down to semi permanent pasture in perennial and short rotation ryegrass, cowgrass and Montgomery red and white clover. The area in supplementary summer lamb fattening and winter feed on the Le Bons BayHickory ridge has since been greatly extended. This year there has been about 31 acres including soft turnips; chou moellier and swedes and turnips, swedes and chou moellier. Best Yielders Calder swedes have proved the best yielders on this country but in the second year it is now preferred to grow a variety such as Wilhelmsbuager with the chou moellier as it is more resistant to dry rot. This week beef breeding cows were following in behind the sheep in cleaning up the chou moellier stalks. Earlier the dairy herd also had a hand in this process.

Kale and chou moellier has proved its worth for lamb fattening and on three out of six acres 150 tail-end shorn Romney lambs were fattened in 1958. Some 280 mated ewe hoggets were wintered on the unfed portion

and the regrowth and when these sheep were shorn in August they came out of the wool better and clipped at least 11b more per head than those wintered on grass.

After a six acre area sown in soft turnips was used for lamb fattening this year it was sown down in Algerian oats in March but with the wet spell in May and, the onset of winter it made no 'growth until quite recently. Four acres sown in turnips about the same time did poorly for a start but it now promises to provide a useful spring picking. Fodder beet, particularly when fed with basic slag, grows outstandingly on this country and the production off two thirds of an acre with hay provided supplementary feed for the 26-cow Friesian milking herd from March till mid May. The intention is to try four acres of maize this summer for supplementary dairy cattle feed. The Flock This winter Mr Armstrong has been carrying about 1200 ewes, mainly Romneys with about 150 Border Romney cross. The crossbred ewe hoggets were mated for the first time last year and several gave twins which are seldom dropped by the Romneys. The crossbred lambs sent off as fats have averaged about 31b heavier than the Romneys over two years. Six hundred ewe hoggets are carried forward for flock replacements and in the recent drought season all of the remaining 750 lambs were sent away as fats. The best of the ewe hoggets are mat id with an average of 65 per cent, of live lambs being obtained and about half of these go fat off the mothers. The hoggets are pre-lamb shorn and shorn again in January and the older ewes are shorn in December when the lambs are weaned and drafted. At present there are 60 beef breeding cows on the place and 60 rising two-year-old cattle, as well as a dairy herd of 90-odd head, including 26 milking cows which in 1957-58 achieved the distinction of recording 5051 b of

fat in 298 days. Even in the recent drought the herd average was about 4201 b of fat.

Without the extra feed Mr Armstrong believes that he would have been able to fatten only half his lambs in the drought and would have had had to quit his rising two-year-old cattle.

At the moment his main concern is to ensure that breeding stock come through the winter well so that they will lamb and calve well, but when he is sure that the winter feed position is assured he will be able to expand his flock to take care of the periods of greatest growth. The increase in carrying capacity on the property is at present obscured by the absorption of extra country, but as an indication of what is possible on 270 acres which has received over four years 2cwt of basic slag, 1 to 2cwt of molybdenised super and a similar weight of straight super from the air sheep numbers have gone up from 300 to 550 ewes and their lambs from lambing to weaning and from 30 breeding cows to 30 breeding cows, 12 autumn calvers and 20 yearling cattle.

In the future the emphasis in supplementary cropping is likely to change. This summer lucerne is to be sown for the first time. Already 20 tons of lime has been spread in preparation for this. The intention is to use the lucerne fjr hay and to place more reliance on hay for winter feeding of the flock with a limited quantity of swedes. Kale and chou moellier will continue to be the lamb fattening feeds with the regrowth being used to winter the ewe hoggets. It is also planned to use surplus growth on the semipermanent pastures being sown down after cropping for silage as an extra insurance against a season like the last. This will involve investment in hay making machinery and the erection of hay barns.