MERINO HOGGETS REARED ON IMPROVED AREA

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30686, 27 February 1965, Page 10

MERINO HOGGETS REARED ON IMPROVED AREA

An account of rearing Merino hoggets on fescue tussock country in Central Otago which had been improved by aerial oversowing and topdressing was given at the field day organised by the Upper Qutha branch of Federated Farmers in conjunction with the Research and Farm Advisory Divisions of the Department of Agriculture last month by Mr T. E. Ludecke, scientific officer of the Department of Agriculture at Alexandra.

This work was done on the property of Mr J. Scurr in the Cardrona Valley, near Wanaka. The improvement programme began in the spring of 1959 and up to the winter of 1964 930 acres had received IJcwt of sulphurised superphosphate (4001 b mix),

21 b of white clover, 21b of Montgomery red clover, 11b of alsike clover, and 21b cocksfoot at a cost of £3 per acre applied. Two and a half years after the initial dressing a maintenance dressing of seed and fertiliser is applied. The improved country is

divided into five blocks and, adjacent to the five improved tussock blocks on this property, there is a block of 3000 acres of unimproved fescue tussock country which was originaUy identical to the improved country. In the spring of 1963 all the ewes were lambed on improved tussock country or on the paddocks. Three-quarters of the ewes and lambs remained on the unproved country until feed became scarce in January when they were turned out on the unimproved block. At weaning in late March 730 hoggets were turned back on to the unimproved block from which they had come and they remained there until mid-July. From mid-July until shearing in late September these hoggets were grazed on improved tussock country. So these hoggets

■were grazed on unimproved country from January until July and improved, country from July until September. The other mob of 220 hoggets was grazed op improved country for the complete year. From April until shearing they were grazed on a 300acre block of improved tussock country. This 300-acre block is the site of a largescale experiment being conducted by the Department of Agriculture to investigate the control of sweet briar by grazing management after oversowing and topdressing. The block was oversown in August, 1963, and was spelled from October until April. At shearing on October 1 the unskirted fleece weights were taken of 100 hoggets—--50 hoggets from the mob which had been on unimproved tussock country from January until mid-July and 50 from the mob which had been on aerially-improved fescue tussock country for their whole life. In each mob of 50, 25 wether fleeces and 25 ewe fleeces were weighed. The sheep on this property are blade shorn and it is estimated that the wool weights of the hoggets would be about 11b heavier if the sheep had been machine shorn. The fleeces, which were weighed, were taken at random so that some fleeces shorn by each of the four shearers on the board were weighed. The results were (the average fleece weights of hoggets on unimproved tussock from January until mid-July being shown under the heading “unimprove” and of those grazed entirely on improved tussock under the heading “improve”):

The increase in wool production was 62 per cent

In the mob of 730 hoggets turned out on unimproved tussock country in April, 690 were shorn in October. This is a death rate over the winter months of 5.5 per cent. Of the 220 hoggets which were grazed on 300 acres of improved tussock country, 218 were shorn in October giving a death rate of less than 1 per cent over the winter months. The fleece weights of the hoggets which were grazed on the unimproved tussock country are about the average of those obtained on this property before an aerial improvement programme was embarked on. The 62 per cent or 2.51 b increase in wool production resulting from the increased plane of nutrition is a very real one. This Merino wool realised 57d in the November sale of the 1964-65 season in Dunedin. The increased return from wool is 12s per hogget. The increased market value of the hoggets which had been grazed on improved tussock country was also estimated to be at least 12s a head. Mr Ludecke said that there were also all other, benefits resulting from feeding hoggets on a better plane of nutrition on which it was difficult to place monetary values when working on a per acre basis. Some of these benefits he listed as: 1. The markedly decreased death rate. The death rate on this property was lowered from 5.5 per cent to less than 1 per cent in the 1964 winter. 2. The increased wool weights of the stock in later life because of the better growth of the sheep. 3. The increased lambing percentages of the ewes In later life resulting from the greater body weights.

Unimprove Improve Wethers 3.91b 6.61b Ewes 4.21b 6.61b Average 4.11b 6.61b Range 2.9-4.9 4.9-8.2