Winter In High Country Improved After May

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

Winter In High Country Improved After May

TT has not been such a bad ■•■ winter in the Canterbury high country though it opened ominously with one of the heaviest early snowfalls for many years, suggesting that the stations were in for a bad time. Mr J. R. Todhunter, of the Rakaia Gorge, said this week that it was the heaviest early snow he could remember in 36 years, and Mr L. P. Chapman, of Mount Somers, said he had not known the country to be caught up in such an early blast in close on 30 years in the area. The trouble with the snow that came in May was that fresh falls followed quickly on top of one another and there was no thaw. Mr Todhunter said that it started early in May and did not clear away until sometime in June. On some properties the autumn musters were unhappily not completed and on these there were undoubtedly losses, though in some cases the true extent of these will not be known until early next year when shearing musters are completed. In the May snows sheep had even to be raked off front faces. Runholders are in agreement that May was a bad month but since then the winter has been fairly favourable and in some areas rather better than average. Mr Todhunter says; “Since May it has been a good open winter and stock have done well.’’ Mr Chapman said that with the heavy frosts and cold weather in early May he had the impression that the country was then in the state that it was normally in in July and that these conditions would tell on sheep in the late part of the winter, but the conditions since then had been quite good. South Canterbury Mr Harry Sievwright, of Timaru, who knows the South Canterbury high country well, said that in that area also the winter had been really a good one since May. While it had been a bit cold, there had been plenty of sunshine, and stock had been dry. There was still deep snow high out on the winter country and the sheep were more confined than usual but the position was not desperate. With heavy falls high out and the basins full of snow, Mr Sievwright said there was moisture for a great growth in the spring and to see the country through a dry summer. Still he warned that a heavy snow at this time of the year could be dangerous, with the risk of avalanches on the steeper sunny slopes catching stock. Mr David McLeod, of Cass, said that though the country surrounding Cass had had a better winter than last year, the immediate front ranges had had a worse time catching the rough weather from the south and east, while the country further back had had little trouble with north-westerly weather. In Lees Valley, as in other districts, the May snowfall was heavy and severe, but fortunately there was a good thaw opening up the northerly country. While there were further falls in June and July they were not so heavy and stock have come through the winter reasonably well. From point of earliness, this year’s snow was the second worst in his 17 years’ experience on the Lands and Survey Department's Molesworth station, said Mr M. unit penicillin cerate as a routine. If there is no response to treat-

ment within three days switch to another drug altogether." M. Chisholm, the station manager, this week. But there have been much heavier falls. On the Saxon Pass, for instance, in previous years snow has lain to a depth of 16ft, but this year there was no more than 4ft.

Fortunately the stock movement programme was about two weeks ahead of schedule when the snows came in May and the station was then virtually closed down for the winter. Forty miles of track making by bulldozer late in May showed that the country was generally covered to a depth of 2ft with drifts up to 4ft, and in cases more. The snow froze and the cattle were without feed for a good many weeks. A thaw in June, however, allowed them to get a bite before there was a similar fall again. This snow has lain up till two weeks ago and is still lying in part of the area. According to Mr Chisholm, losses appear likely to be little more than normal. The cattle are naturally down in condition but “they look a long way from dying,” he said.