Winner Of Stock Feeding Award

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31327, 25 March 1967, Page 9

Winner Of Stock Feeding Award

A visitor to Christchurch this week was Mr L. H. Mace, a farmer of Kindred on the north west coast of Tasmania, who has scored most points over the last three years in a stock feeding competition in Tasmania organised by Department of Agriculture and show societies.

As a result, as well as trophies, Mr Mace has won a 900-dollar or £450 (Australian) award to enable him to visit New Zealand. He is the second to come to New Zealand under the award. The competition is held annually in Tasmania from May 1 to August 30. It is judged on the quality and quantity of hay made and forage crops grown, the standard of storage for hay, condition of pastures, provision of shelter, use of feed and condition of stock. Mr Mace said that, in the final analysis, the competition was won by the far-

mer who carried the most stock per acre in the best condition. It is held on a district, regional and then on a state basis, and Mr Mace won the state contest in 1964, a regional contest in 1965 and on a district level last year, when in the state as a whole there were 278 competitors. The travel award is sponsored by a number of interests including the Rural Bank, stock auctioneers, fertiliser, milk processing and oil companies. Mr Mace’s farm, which is 115 acres in area, lies some 200 miles from Hobart and is undulating with red soils. The annual rainfall is about 37 inches. Some 15 to 20 acres of peas are grown annually for canning, being sown in July or August and harvested in December. Forage crops are then sown in February for subsequent winter grazing in rotation. These crops are Algerian oats, black oats and Italian ryegrass. A double cropping programme is folio ”ed. Mr Mace runs a flock of 200 Polwarth Border Leicester cross ewes which are mated with Polled Dorset rams for fat lamb production. The lambs are born in May to catch the early market—they aE go to the local trade. Some 82 head of young cattle are carried. These cattle by a Hereford bull out of Friesian or Illawarra Shorthorn cows are bought in from dairymen at about four months of age at about £24 each. When about the yearling stage the heifers are sold as baby beef at about £l3 per 1001 b dressed weight when they dress out at about 3751 b, giving a return of almost £5O. The steers are taken on until they are about 14 months old when they are sold in the store market to fatteners at about £4B or £5O. When the cattle are cleared off the property in the spring, hay and silage are made for the following winter’s requirements, and recently off his 115 acres Mr Mace has made some 3400 bales of hay and 100 tons of silage. Mr Mace uses spray irrigation but he says that use of water from natural water channels is strictly controlled and he has a dam on his property. Water, he says, about doubles crop yields.

At the end of a three weeks' visit to New Zealand, Mr Mace said he regarded the North Island as a farmer’s dream. The grass there just grew up to the farmer’s ankles in a few days. They did not need machinery there and one man I > had talked to with 250 head of cattle on 220 acres bad said that he only made 1100 bales of hay. With his 82 odd head of cattle, Mr Mace said he would not expect to have much left out of 3400 bales unless there was a very favourable winter. Until a few years ago, a dairy farmer, Mr Mace, said that the 3501 b of butterfat obtained to the acre in the north was a long way ahead of anything they could achieve. For the first time in 33 years, Mr Mace has not grown potatoes in the most recent year. He said that the potatoes off their red soils brought a premium in Sydney, but over the last two or three years potatoes bad not been payable.