60,000 Sheep Lost

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31775, 4 September 1968, Page 1

60,000 Sheep Lost

(N Z. Press Association) TIMARU, September 3. An almost complete survey of South Island high country areas has shown that nearly 60,000 sheep and more than 300 cattle died in the snowstorm last November. The final figures could be as high as 70,000 sheep and 400 cattle. The survey was carried out by the Tussock Grasslands and Mountain Lands Institute and the Department of Agriculture. Details of the classes of sheep and cattle and the main areas affected should be ready in two weeks, the Department of Agriculture’s farm advisory officer

in Fairlie, Mr D. G. Reynolds, said today. “Not all the figures are to hand but a preliminary figure for the Mackenzie area and north to Lake Coleridge indicates that 58,000 sheep died, together with 342 cattle,” Mr Reynolds said.

“This figure will be scant comfort to those early critics who suggested that the original estimate of 40,000 was exaggerated,” he said. “Final figures are likely to be up to 70,000 sheep and 400 cattle.

“The economic effects of this loss on the high country community will be felt for many years to come, particularly because added

to this loss must be the damage to fences and buildings.

“This disaster could not have come at a more unfortunate time,” Mr Reynolds said. “In the previous 10 years the high country had been developing its runs and great strides had been made.

“Nearly ail of this work has been done out of income but development programmes are still far from complete and a lot more capital is necessary to secure the advances already made.”

Mr Reynolds estimated that it would take most runs a full generation to return their flocks to normal.