Performance Of Stock Important

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31113, 16 July 1966, Page 8

Performance Of Stock Important

Flock performance should be an important issue with sheep farmers, as the efficiency of the animals grazed could have a big effect on the economic wellbeing of a property, Mr F. L. Ward, district officer of the Meat and Wool Boards’ Economic Service, said last week. Animal efficiency, he said, was a combination of factors, and included the ability to produce a good weight of high quality wool in association with high lambing percentages and minimum losses. Mr Ward told delegates to the South Island Rabbit Boards’ Association conference at Timaru that the high country had shown a sheep and lamb output increase of from 15.6 per cent to 27 per cent over a 10-year period. This was quite remarkable, as the proportion of breeding ewes in high country flocks had hardly changed, due probably to a limitation imposed by areas of breeding country as well as a woql policy associated with the carrying of a high proportion of wethers.

Sheep and lamb output figures for other classes of sheep farms would be higher, because there was a higher proportion of ewes carried, and on better country higher lambing percentages could be expected. For example, the sheep and lamb output of the South Island foothills would be about 52 per cent, with an average lambing percentage of 94, while the harder hill country of the North Island would have an output of 40 per cent with a lambing percentage of 82. Mr Ward said that in a recent economic service survey of flock performance, the sheep loss figures for the high country were of particular interest in comparison with other classes of farming. For the 1963-1964 season, the mortality figures were:— high country 6.2 per cent, foothills 6, hard hill country (North Island) 8.1, easy hills (North Island) 7.3, fattening farms (North Island) 6.9, Canterbury and Marlborough fattening farms 5.7, Southland

and Otago fattening farms 7, and Canterbury mixed cropping farms 5.8. The position on the high country a few years back and at the height of the rabbit menace was very different indeed, and losses would have been between 10 and 20 per cent (and considerably higher on individual properties), whereas the position on other classes of farms would have been considerably below that figure. "Today we have the situation, as shown on our survey farms, where the high country losses are quite moderate and compare favourably with those in other farm classes,” Mr Ward said. "It should be remembered, however, that high country losses are more subject to variation than others, due to weather hazards, although they seem to have stabilised considerably in recent years.

"It should be stated that the rabbit menace was by no means Confined to the high country, but changes there following rabbit destruction have been more dramatic. In other farm classes on the hills and plains, sheep and lamb losses have also tended to fall with development and improved nutrition standards, but with land development, the proportion of breeding stock usually increases, and these naturally are more vulnerable to losses. "The destruction of the rabbit, however, has been a significant factor in raising the level of stock nutrition in many areas other than the high country.”

Mr Ward said the whole future of the livestock industry was associated with the level of nutrition, and limiting factors must be removed if the livestock Industry was to carry New Zealand through to the £422m export earnings goal by 1972-1973, and that was really only a short term plan because 1982-1983 was not so very far away. Mr Ward listed four main points on farm production, export earnings and pest control.

There was, he said, still a very great potential for primary production in New Zealand, and with the technical aids now available, including pest control, the export aims for 1972-1973 could be realised.

One of the most important factors in land development was fertiliser, and as its use

increased there would be more stock, more subdivision, and capital additions of many kinds. This would involve a need for careful farm development planning to make full use of finance available, both from revenue and finance institutions. The efficiency of farming methods must be under constant scrutiny and, in particular, the performance of stock on the grazing provided by development. The farming industry could look into the future with reasonable confidence, but, in looking ahead, it should glance over its shoulder now and again at the past, because there were lessons, one being the need for rigid control of rabbits. The aim of exterminating these and other noxious animals was essential for the well-being of much of the country and, in particular, the tussock uplands wherein lay a very important production potential.