Development Programme In Mid-Canterbury

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30472, 20 June 1964, Page 8

Development Programme In Mid-Canterbury

When. a 22-year-old Mid-CanterJ)ury fanner, Mr K. J. B. Early', took over a 777acre property at Ruapuna six years ago, all but about 120 acres was in browntop sjnd in ' the first year he harvested most of the area for browntop seed. Now all but one paddock has been broken in out of browntop, an< that paddock has been oversown and limed, and some 85 acres has been, cultivated for the second; time, so that more than the total area of the holding has been worked up. '

A feature of this speedy development' programme has been that it has been done out of revenue and even taking into account that capital expenditure is included with ordinary working expenses the enterprise is showing a useful return. In the 1962-63 season, after allowing for wages of management, the return on capital was 10 per cent, and in the previous year it was 7 per cent • The property comprises Ruapana stony silt loam, and is medium class country responsive, particularly to pliosphate, but also to sulphur j and lime. Because of its relatively good potential fertility, Mr Early has been able to go

Red and white clover has also been undersown with barley but this practice has been given up for the reason that the rotting of the straw harmed the subsequent pasture and retarded the-desired build-up of fertility. The pasture mixture now used for sowjng down is a bushel' of perennial ryegrass, 31b of white clover; and 21b of crested dogstail. A feature of the programme on the farm has been the quite heavy dressing of fertiliser given in the first year. A ton 7 of lime is normally applied at sowing down, though in’ an odd case it has been applied in the- first two years. ;At sowing down 2cwt of ammoniated superphosphate is used and in May or June 2cwt of sulphurised DDT super has been applied, and in this year’s sowings the rate here has been increased to 3cwt and then Within the 12 months there is another dressing of Ijcwt of super. Lime Use Use of lime on the property now amounts to 881 tons and application of superphosphate has risen from .15 tons in the first season to 95 tons in the most recent season. This autumn all grass has had 3cwt of sulphurised super and paddocks that have had hay or seed crops taken off them have deceived Ijcwt bf sulphurised super and licwt of wet mix D.D.T. super. This is the heaviest general dressing yet given and Mr Early is quite sure that the heavier super dressings pay dividends. Within this development programme with pastures going through the normal Mover dominant phase, there has been' opportunity for taking small seeds crops. This has reached a peak in the last season with 190 acres being harvested for white clover with 400 sacks being taken off the header and it is expected that when machine dressed there will be close to a saek to the acre. In the last two years 45 acres of perennial ryegrass has -also been harvested each year. A dressing of 2cwt of sulphate of ammonia is given to these crops at the end of October. Last year the yield was about 25 bushels to the acre but in the most recent season it was back to about 15. With the big areas being saved for small seeds all of the ewes and hoggets had to be put out to grazing for six to seven weeks last season.

in for quite extensive cash cropping and also lately to harvest considerable areas of white clover and grass for seed and so help to pay- for the development programme. • Mr Early is a member of the Lauriston Farm Improvement Club and readily acknowledges that he would not have been able to make the progress that he has without the advice of the club. The club adviser, Mr R. H. N. Smith, makes the point that under a development programme, the position is constantly arising where more stock is re: quired and, in this case, some of the potential for extra stocking has been taken up by cropping and closing paddocks for small seeds to enable the stock to be eventually obtained and also at the same time to pay for extra development. Stocking When Eden Terrace was taken over, it was carrying 1100 to 1200 ewes and 400 replacement hoggets with lambs being sold as stores, and there was no cropping. In the first year, the ewe flock was raised to 1400 with still 400 ewe lambs being retained. Now there are 2100 ewes and 400 replacement hoggets. The practice was initially to sow turnips after breaking up the browntop, but subsequently swedes have been used, and the rotation 'has Included linseed and wheat. Sometimes the wheat has been oversown in early September with red clover, and this has been grazed in the year after the wheat harvest, the land being broken up again in December and sown in pasture in February. The advantages of this procedure are that fertility is higher when the pasture is Sown, the area can be sown earlier and there is not the pressure on labour, as is often the case if a paddock is sown down directly after wheat. Where pastures are somn down on this routine, turnips are included in the mixture.

Two clover crops have been taken off the one paddock with white clover undersdwn with linseed. A crop of choumoelller' is being tried for seed this yfear and a change is also being made in the rotation With partridge • peas being sown

after wheat and before returning to grass.

The area under wheat has varied from 40 to 120 acres and was 80 acres last season and will be about the same again this year. Yields have varied from 11 to* 53 bushels and have averaged about 30 bushels. Last season to spread the risk Aotea, Arawa and Hilgendorf were grown but this season it is likely to be mainly Hilgeddorf, and to try to delay the maturity of this variety, it is planned not to sow* it till the end of this month. It is hoped in this way to avoid the late spring frost that hit this crop in Mid-Can-terbury last season. Superphosphate at 1 cwt to the acre is used with wheat on this country. From 20 to 75‘acres has also been in barley but yields have not been- particularly payable at an average of 40 and .there has also been unsatisfactory results- with undersowings with this crop. It is no longer included in the rotation. ■ Linseed grows well on this country and for the last two seasons there have, been 100 acres in this crop. Until last season the yield average was 18 cwt, but last season’s ci-op was down to .about 13 cwt with the dry weather. Superphosphate is not now used with this crop although it was formerly applied at 1 cwt to the acre.

Another source of Income on the farm has been the selling of surplus feed. In every season apart from the present one there has been feed to sell and sheep, and in one year cattle, from outside have been grazed on the property. If the present season had been anywhere near normal it is anticipated that there would have been a 75 per cent surplus of winter feed but in fact there .is barely enough for the’Stock being carried and a little barley is to be used to help out. Last season 2200 bales of meadow hay were saved and a very valuable 4100 bales of white clover tailings; which are conservatively valued at £lOOO. In addition there are 42 acres of swedes and 25 acres of turnips and some 200 acres of autumn-saved grass. In the previous season about 10,000 bales of grass seed straws, clover tailings and pasture, hay were saved and a considerable quantity of this was given away. It would have been useful this season.

Currently the flock stands at 2100 ewes and 400 replacement hoggets. About 1100 of

these are first cross Border Leicester Romneys and the balance are Romneys. Fat lamb sires—South Suffolks and Dorset Horn Southdown cross—are used over about 1250 ewes and Romneys over the rest for breeding replacements. First cross ewes are no longer being bred as they can be bought economically as fats. Mr Early believes that the crossbreds are better mothers, so far clip a little better than the straight Rom-: neys, give more lambs and these lambs grow faster. Mr Smith also says that they are healthier, but'Mr Early says that they are harder to manage in that it is harder to hpid them unless fences are good. Lambing is now due to start about August 20 and the straight Romneys follow about two weeks later. Ip the first year there was a 94 per cent lambing and it has since been iip to 112 per cent. Lambs are drafted early at light weights and in 1962-63 80 per cent; were drafted as fats within 16 weeks of birth. The ewes clip about 101 b of wool. In the spring of 1962 up to 8.5 ewe equivalents were being carried to the acre on available grazing and last spring the figure was 6.8. Ewes get selenium three times a year—twice on its own and then about a month before lambing with thiabendazole. They are also vaccinated a month before

lambing for black-leg and malignant oedema. Lambs receive; selenium at tailing and selenium and thiabendazole after weaning and again about March. Some seven miles and a half of fencing has been erected, a good deal of it temporary electric fence, but the trend is now to go in for permanent fencing and fences now being erected comprise three concrete posts and two droppers to the chain and five plain wires and two barbs. More than four miles of permanent fencing has been on the programme in the past year. Some 2500 pines have been planted on a terrace for timber and a planting of a further 4500 is contemplated. Three hay barns capable of holding 6500 bales of hay have been erected. A major task-and one involving much hard work has been the removal of stones from this naturally stony country. The practice has been to move stones aside by hand as paddocks have been rolled after sowing and these have been picked up by a front-end loader and shifted, to stone heaps by . truck. It has been estimated that 15 man hours’ work has been

necessary for each acre in a very stony paddock. Use recently of a grader placing the stones in rows and a loader .with a two and a half cubic yard bucket depositing them ih heaps has about

halved the cost of clearing and done a better job. The cost of this clearing was about £8 an acre.