FAT LAMB PRODUCTION

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29192, 30 April 1960, Page 8

FAT LAMB PRODUCTION

Prebbleton Farmer’s Success Mr A. Zuppicich, of Prebbleton, had the distinction this season of having his lambs highly placed both at the North Canterbury export lamb competition at Belfast last November and more recently when the winning lambs from the district were judged at Smithfield in England. The Prebbleton farmer’s two pens of lambs were placed first and second at Belfast and first and third in London.

The lambs, which were out of selected halfbred ewes mated with a Southdown ram, came from Mr Zuppicich's farm of 430 acres, which comprises four separate areas ranging from 50 acres to 265 acres. The biggest block has been in Mr Zuppicich’s hands for the last 18 years. The rest of the land is leasehold. Mr Zuppicich describes it as beinj good sweet sheep and agricultural country of medium type. Mixed Farm It is a mixed farm with seldom less than 100 to 130 acres in crop, i The commercial flock comprises ’ about 400 halfbred ewes and there its a Southdown stud established : in 1945 which now includes about 1200 ewes and 200 ewe and ram hoggets. About 20 head of cattle ■ are also carried on the place. Half of the commercial flock ■ is mated about the end of Janu- ; ary for lambing about the end of! June and the rams are put out ! i with the balance for lambing from mid-August onwards. Rams are drawn from the Southdown stud. Winter Feed Fifteen acres of turnips and chou moellier are grown for winter feed and the ewes will be on these i : for most of the day from some[time next month. They will be ; running off on to about 30 acres of pasture where they will be fed about eight to 10 bales of lucerne hay a day. A further 30 acres of Algerian and Winter Grey oats will come into the picture when the turnips and chou moeiher run out. Still another 30 acres is in Italian ryegrass and white clover which was sown down this autumn. The ewes will lamb on

this area. About 100 acres of pasture will be available for lamb fattening about this time and it is Mr Zuppicichs aim to keep moving the ewes and lambs around fairly frequently so that pastures do not become excessively dirty and there is always a clean bite. The lambing percentage on the property is about 130 and it is the practice to sell almost the entire lamb drop as fats off the mothers. No rape is grown and any tailend lambs are sold as stores. The bulk of the early lambs are sold to the trade at about 12 weeks of age and most of these are gone by early November. Most of the later lambs and also tail-enders from the early lambing generally go to the works. Bought In Because these lambs are sold on a per head basis there is no ready information available about lamb weights. After lambs have been sold, cull ewes are drafted for sale to the works. Replacement ewes are * bought in as four and five-year-olds and 'eImain in the flock for one or two years. Mr Zuppicich does not believe in doing too hard ewes which he carries over for another lamb and he says he ■ is not perturbed if they put on weight. He would prefer to sell ewes if he found that they had to be starved but although he has just had two drought seasons—the 1958-59 seasen was the most severe He has had since he came on the property—he has not had to do that. • For the competition last November Mr Zuppicich made a special effort to produce the short low set type of lamb that is being sought by the export trade

Before mating time about 30 half-bred ewes were speciallyselected for mating with a twotooth Southdown ram out of his stud flock. The ram had been bred on the farm. In selecting the ewes emphasis was placed on the low and blocky type with short Legs No preferential treatment was given to the lambs from these ewes and under the drought conditions feed supplies had dwindled to a low ebb about two weeks before they were killed. However, Mr Zuppicich believes that this may have been beneficial to them in that over this period living on their kidney fat they reached a point where they carried no excess fat. As Good Two years ago Mr Zuppicich produced lambs which he believes were every bit as good as this season’s winners but then by an oversight they were not entered tn the competition. This season's winners were picked cut for the competition by Mr J M. Le Comte, a fat lamb drafter. A six-year-old stand of lucerne is regarded as mainly a hay proposition and this year in three eats 2500 bales were saved, which is m excess of farm requirements. In addition this year there has been some grazing off the lucerne Last year only one light cut was obtained It pro-

duced 670 bales but Mr Zuppicich was able to make do with it. Lucerne and pickings from harvest stubbles are used to flush ewes. No depression in lambing percentages has been observed as a result of the use of lucerne. Clover Dominant Pastures tend to become clover dominant and after three or four years they are turned over. Normally about 50 acres are saved for white clover but in the last two years no clover has been harvested as all the feed has been nedeed for sheep. Where areas are to be saved for seed they are topdressed with 2 cwt of DDT superphosphate. This autumn 40 acres have been treated in this way. New pastures are also given a similar topdressing. Where necessary lime is applied generally before sowing down and this year 20 tons has been spread at about a ton to the acre. This week seven acres of Arran Banner potatoes have been harvested. This is the smallest area of p rtatoes grown an the farm during she period Mr Zuppicich has been growing potatoes- The yield this year wa£ about 1C I tons to the acre but up to 18 ■ tons So the acre have been recorded. Fifty acres in Aotea wheat this season yielded 67

bushels to the acre. In the previj ous season Arawa yielded 94 J bushels to the acre. This season Partridge and White Prolific peas yielded about 50 bushels to [the acre and oats yielded 76 i bushels off 40 acres- Oat yields 'in other years have ranged up I to more than 100 bushels to the ; acre.