Stock Up More Than Half In Two Years

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31113, 16 July 1966, Page 10

Stock Up More Than Half In Two Years

A better than 50 per cent stock increase in two years has been achieved on the Leamington Valley property of Mr C. T. White, in the Cheviot district.

In a paper presented to the . hill country development; conference at Waipara last) week Mr White discussed! progress with a five-year ■ development programme which has now been running for two years. “Substantial stock increases have been made in this time and this has been made possible by a State Advances loan and using new management techniques,” he said. Mr White’s farm, which is about 10i miles west of Cheviot, is 953 acres in area, of which 50 acres are flat to rolling downs, 350 acres steep arable and the balance in the native. This area is interspersed by steep gullies: and at this stage more than' half of this area has been: improved by oversowing and: topdressing. The altitude of the property | ranges from about 600 to 1350 feet and rainfall is from 30' to 34 inches in an uneven distribution. Early in the 1964-1965 season, Mr White said, a State Advances development loan had been arranged and a new programme begun. The carrying capacity at that time was 1190 ewes, 540 hoggets, 73 cows and 60 rams, wethers etc., or about 2.1 ewe equivalents to the acre. His average indebtedness was about £3OOO to the stock firms, with a low mortgage to State Advances. A total of £6BOO was then borrowed from the State Advances on a table mortgage at a rate of 5 per cent for 27 years, with no capital repayment for two years. This money was spent as follows: three haysheds £842, tractor and plant £lO3B, hut repairs £260, cultivation, tracks and dams £6OO, subdivision fencing £l2OO, and

topdressing, lime and seeds 1 £2500. Mr White said that this money had enabled him, by 1 ; contract to put 85 acres 1 ' through turnips to lucerne or 1 turnips and grass, topdress ) and oversow 329 acres and ■ topdress at maintenance levels 1 some 600 acres. Three and 1 : three-quarter miles of new ' fencing had also been erected. ! The first year of the new programme had caused him a 1 lot of worry Mr White said. : This was a period when the 1 district was in the throes of drought. Grazing had been ’ intensified without any signi- i i ficant stock increase. There ■ was little grass to be seen ;: anywhere. | Yet distressing as the i drought had been, he had I learnt from it just how much | grass was wasted in a normal : 'i year. It had even encouraged i him to contemplate a much i ■ larger increase in carrying i 1 capacity for the next season. When the drought was ■ ) over it had soon become ■ j apparent that the farm would i be well understocked. The • I grazing pattern had therefore • to be altered so as to con- • | serve all paddocks suitable .for making hay. He had ; i anticipated making 2000 bales -I of meadow hay. This had -1 turned out to be 5000 bales. 1; Budgetry planning at this i stage had had to be altered s to allow the excess feed to ) be coped with. A tractor, ; mower and rake, as well as s two extra hay sheds, had had r to be obtained in a hurry. 5 ; Financial arrangements had 5 1 had to be made. The State t Advances loan had ’,een s j varied and thanks to an ■ j understanding stock firm • manager the new budget had ” been agreed to. ’ “My present carrying capacity is 1423 ewes, 1320 hoggets, 90 wethers and rams, 74 cows and 39 dry cattle. This represents 3.2 ewe equivalents to the acre or just over a 50 per cent increase in two years. The stock firm overdraft has risen of course. This is not surprising when you consider the large sum of money involved in stock retention, plus the added cost of making

5000 bales of hay by contract! and the extra cost involved) to achieve this carrying capacity.” Mr White said that making of a large amount of hay, the erection of hay barns, the buying of machinery and .ae retention of stock all added up to a lot of money. The retention of stock alone represented a loss of about £3OOO from last year’s revenue. . . . The effect of this upsurge in carrying capacity would not be realised in cash income for 12 to 18 months and this would depend on what he did next year. Until now the liquid cash situation would appear to be gloomy with the increase of indebtedness to the stock firm and a further £6BOO borrowed from the State Advances and nearly spent. How was he going to come out of this? Mr White said he intended to stabilise for a year at a slightly higher carrying capacity. He would nnt be doing any new development work and would maintain what had been done. He proposed to carry forward two years’ book losses to offset the coming year’s taxable profit. The cash surpluses would be used to reduce the stock firm’s commitment to the point where it could be used for normal seasonal finance. The gross cash income for the coming season was estimated at between £9500 and £lO,OOO. This compared with a gross cash income of £6600 for 1965-66. They had : budgeted on wool at 394 per lb, net, lambs at 40s and cast-for-age ewes at 50s, steer calves at £2O and heifer calves at £l5. The estimated cash income would include £5OOO for wool, £3OOO for i sheepsales, and £l7OO for I cattle.

“If I stabilise completely at this carrying capacity, am I going to be any better off after two years’ intensive development than I was in 1964-1965,” asked Mr White. “In my opinion the answer is yes. My cash income is up by £3OOO, my cash expenses will be up by about £l2OO, so I should have an extra £lBOO of cash in hand and should be in a stronger position to withstand any economic fluctuations which we may suffer.” Of the management techniques involved, Mr White said that immediately after the first tupping cycle in April mob stocking of the area to be oversown and topdressed was begun with 30 or more ewes to the acre. If any of the sheep showed loss of condition under this type of management they were removed from the mob, drenched and put on a better pasture. By mob stocking, Mr White said, he meant concentrating large mobs on the area under preparation for most of the time with perhaps a daily ration of fodder crops, or

another topdressed and oversown block. A root or fodder crop handy to the area to be prepared was a wonderful start for the programme. The return of dung and urine under these conditions gave a quick lift in fertility to the pasture being prepared. “1 am one of those farmers who believe that a large lift in carrying capacity could be brought about by subdivision and mob stocking alone.” Of course topdressing and oversowing hastened the programme. He had followed the procedure of topdressing a prepared pasture late in the winter with 4cwt to the acre followed with a maintenance dressing of IJcwt of sulphur super applied in the following autumn. Prills had been applied at this time for grass grub control, and on the dark facings 41b of seed to the acre of a mixture of 2lb of white clover, 21b of red clover and 21b of alsike was sown. Subterranean clover was usually sown on the north-west facings. This was inoculated and sown at the rate of 41b to the acre in the autumn. Preparation of north-west facings was not as rigorous as that used on the dark or semidark areas. He believed that some vegetation should be left as shelter for the seedlings but a close watch had to be kept on these pastures so that volunteer species did not smother out those that had been introduced. Sometimes he had found it necessary to graze quickly with cattle or a large mob of hoggets to keep the ground cover in control. For seeding he usually spelled a pasture after a vigorous graze and when the seed was well set grazed with a large mob of cattle or hoggets. “In my opinion one of the keys to successful hill country improvement is large mobs of sheep being moved round between the subdivided areas,” commented Mr White.

“Now that I have adequate hay on hand I hope to feed this out on dry north-west facings during the winter. By so doing I hope to raise the humus content of the soil and ultimately get a better seed bed. In short, improvement of hill country is one of observation, anticipation and movement.”