METHVEN MAN FINALIST IN COMPETITION

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30763, 29 May 1965, Page 8

METHVEN MAN FINALIST IN COMPETITION

Mr M. V. Poff, who farms 575 acres on the Double Hill runs road, 11 miles from Methven in Mid-Canterbury, was this year’s Canterbury finalist for the A. C. Cameron memorial award in the South Island. Gold medals are awarded annually to a young farmer in each island who has shown outstanding farming ability and who has also made a useful contribution to the life of the community in which he fives.

Mr Poff, who is 38 years of age, managed the property, which varies in altitude from 1200 to 1600 ft above sea level and includes mountain and river terrace, from 1950 to 1962, and since that time has been leasing it from the ■ estate of his mother. It has , been in the hands of the family since 1910. The average rainfall is , about 48 inches and the farm . I is subject to severe north- ' west winds, which are charac- ' teristic of the gorge coun- ( try, and occasional snow storms, and frosts average about 14 degrees in winter and sometimes get up to 26 degrees. Before World War 11 the farm was mostly in browntop and it was about j 1940 when a start was made Ito improve the property, j Today all but about 40 or 50 | acres of terrace and 14 to 20 acres of swamp have been sown down. Expenditure of more than £5OO on use of a dragline and construction of open drains resulted in about 19 acres being converted into ploughable land. This work helped to drain some of the fan country above the swamp and was also designed to catch some of the springs which affected the area, but this was only partially successful. Stock numbers and performance have improved quite markedly over the years. In 1949-50 there were a total of 1627 sheep on Pinedalesix years earlier there had only been 1030. This winter the tally is up to 2905 with 2122 ewes going to the ram. The lambing percentage is now about 114 or 115 per cent. Wool production has climbed from 80341 b in 1943-44 to 14,5371 b in 1949-50 to 33,3951 b in the latest season. The clip per head in 1949-50 was 8.931 b and it represented a production of 25.21 b per aere. In the latest season, based on numbers of sheep going into the winter, it was up to 58.071 b per acre and 11.591 b per head. With good wool growing conditions this autumn Mr Poff’ believes that wool production in the current year from April to I April may exceed 60 per acre. Iff incentives for higher production are sufficient, his objective is, by 1970, reach an overall wool production of 701 b per acre, when he expects to be running about 3400 sheep and 130 cattle. By then he will have considerably curtailed the limited

cash cropping programme which is at present carried out on this not very easy country for cropping.

The Pinedale flock is a Romney-Corriedale one. Mr Poff favours this type of crossbred sheep in the belief that they are smaller than the Romney and he can carry more of them, the finer lambs draft earlier, they are healthy and the finer wool is more resistant to dust in this naturally windy and dusty country.

For mating the ewe flock is split up into strong, medium and fine wool groups—the medium group including sheep with wool that lacks character, is plain or has no density—and these sheep go out into the tupping paddocks in mobs of 300. The strong sheep go to the Corriedale ram, the finest to the Romney

and the mediums to the best of each type of ram. For July, August and part of September all the ewes, apart from some light ones, run on swedes with a gradually increasing ration of hay. and then after crutching in mid September they are split up again into early, late and very late lambing groups for appropriate treatment prior to lambing. At lambing some of the ewes which have been given assistance are tied to a fence for a time, but most mothering on is done in the woolshed. Again in this country where wind adds to mismothering problems twin

lambs are sometimes tied together by one of the back feet for a time to keep them together. Ewes and lambs are subsequently rotationally grazed with about 330 ewes being put in a mob with their lambs, j Lambs are weaned between Christmas and New Year when a draft is taken off for the works. Over the last three seasons about 50 per cent of the wether lambs have been drafted to the works and about a third have gone off the mothers.

Stock health is good and from docking to weaning losses in lambs over six years constituted no more than 0.5 per cent. Up until this last season no drenching had been done on the property but before tupping this autumn all ewes were treated with selenium to see whether there is an improvement in lambing percentage and hoggets were drenched with selenium and thiabendazole.

Surplus sheep off the place sold as two-tooths at the Methven fair in the autumn following shearing in January brought up to 93s last year.

Mr Poff has an Aberdeen Angus stud. Apart from being an interest or hobby, Mr Poff believes that there must be great scope for cattle in both North Canterbury and Mid-Canterbury and that, the demand for bulls must inevitably be good in the future. Last, season his total sale of six bulls averaged 190gns each and a rising three-year-old heifer from the stud was judged champion of all breeds at the Methven show in March. The females in the herd are based on mainly Waiterenui ’ blood and the sires have been all from Donald Grant,, except one which originally came from Scotland in utero.

Cattle numbers have gone up from 12 in 1949-50 to 65 last season and 71 this winter. Control of surplus feed is one of their functions.

Linseed as a cash crop has been found a good cover crop for grass. Three seasons ago it yielded a ton to the acre. This year off 561 acres it yielded about 12 to 14ewt. The grass seed mixture broadcast with an old spoon fed grass seed sower consists of 201 b of perennial ryegrass, 51b of short rotation ryegrass, 31b of cocksfoot, 31b of white clover, 3Jb of montgomery red clover, 31b of timothy and lib of crested dogstail. Certified seeds are invariably sown.

At present, on the basis of soil tests made on all paddocks in 1954, a ton of lime is spread prior to sowing down and lewt of sulphur superphosphate is used on half of the grass paddocks each year and DDT every three years. By next year the whole property will have been turned over since 1954 and it is planned to repeat the soil tests. Paddocks cannot be worked down too fine when sowing for fear of wind blow and also because of spurry infestation.

Wheat has been grown with limited success and grass seed has been harvested but a problem here is the possibility of the grass being blown away in the swath. A good district for seed potatoes, about 15 to 20 acres are leased each year for growing this crop.

About 30 or 40 acres of Calder swedes are grown for winter feed. The ground is deep ploughed in mid-Octo-ber after lambing and the crop is ridged at 10 ounces to the acre with 2cwt of borated super and lewt of 44/46 superphosphate and is sprayed eight to 10 days after sow-

ing for springtails. If by the end of December, it looks as though the swedes will not suffice for flock requirements, a paddock is put in Green Globe turnips.

Because of frost pasture saved in the autumn has to be kept fairly short—to an inch or two—and in effect means that a paddock comes away earlier when growth resumes in the spring. There is a stand of 19} acres of lucerne but lucerne seems to deteriorate fairly rapidly and it is found easier to make good meadow than good lucerne hay. In the last season about 6500 bales of hay have been made. Normally the cut is about 3000 to 3500 bales.

In this windy climate shelter is a vital requirement and Mr Poff has been responsible for planting more than 10,000 trees. He says that he is moving away from pines, which although easy to grow create a problem of sour ground near them and also lose their density low down as they grow older. He says that it is necessary to wait for substantial shelter from oregons and lawsons but it is worth waiting for and they eventually provide plantations that require a minimum amount of

maintenance. Thuia plicata is a good grower in this area and will have a place in future belts.

Mr Poff has been very successful in pasture competitions both on a county and district level. For pasture on land of more than £l5 unimproved value he was runner-up in the Ashburton county competition for the whole farm on two or three occasions, and as well he won the individual paddock section of this competition about four times and a trophy for the best Methven district paddock about five times.

A former chairman, vicechairman, secretary and treasurer of the Methven Young Farmers’ Club, Mr Poff won the Romney section of the national young farmers’ stock judging compeptitions in 1951 and went to Lincoln College to take the diploma course under a Canterbury Frozen Meat Scholarship. He is a member of the general committee and cattle committee of the Methven Agricultural and Pastoral Association. He has also served as a committee member and president of the Mt. Hutt Skating Club and the Windwhistle Winter Sports Club.