Top S.L Lambs From Wheatstone

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31967, 19 April 1969, Page 9

Top S.L Lambs From Wheatstone

For the second time in three years Ashburton county has produced the best pen of lambs from the South Island on the basis of the London judging of lambs sent forward from export competitions held throughout die island late last year.

On this occasion the producer of the winning lambs was Mr W. J. Small, whose 275 aeres Terracedale property at Wheatstone lies within the boundaries of the famous old Longbeach property of earlier days. Three years ago Mr D. M. Smith, who farms not far away, near Eiffelton, also had this distinction.

Mr Small’s property, which has been in the hands of his family for many years, comprises mainly medium to heavy land and the sheep enterprise is not the most important. At least 150 acres are devoted to cropping each year.

The property is bounded on one side by the Ashburton River and it includes 47 acres of riverbed, of which about 25 acres have been cleared for farming. This is light land.

Mr Small carries a total of about 800 sheep. Including 650 ewes. Because of the limited area of the farm the ewes are bought in as four or five year olds—mainly five year olds.

The breed of ewe used is Romney cross and for the last three years they have come from the Parnassus district, although over the years they have come from many sources. The ewes are mated with Southdown rams to begin lambing early in August The rams are bred on the place. For a while Mr Small ran a stud, starting off with ewes from Mr R. J. Low at Highbank, but more recently he has been 1

mainly breeding nma far his own uae. The competition lambs were born towards the end of August and at the time of the Mid-Canterbury district competition were about 12 week* old. Mr Small gives a lot of the credit for bi* success to Mr C. J. Bell, of Hinds, who selected his two pens of three for the event Mr Bell Is a Canterbury Froaen Meat Company drafter of 24 year* standing. Mr Bell was aiming for a 321 b lamb in the belief that these do best in London and in seeking this weight lambs were weighed during th* selection. The outcome was that five of th* six killed out at 321 b and on* at 331 b. As well a* taking top place in London for the whole of the South Island and also for the Mid-Canterbury district, Mr Small's lambs won first place in the local judging last November. Then one lamb out of his second pen, which was unplaced in the local competition, was used to replace one of the lambs in his winning pen when the judges selected the top entries for the London competition. The judges may interchange lambs between the same producers pens in doing this.

Incidentally, as well as winning the Canterbury Frozen Meat Company's cup for the top pen of three lambs in the local competition, Mr Small’s two pens also won the Lyttelton Harbour Board 'cup for the best six lambs.

ing up drafting and who now farms 580 acres in partnership with his son m well as doing drafting, said that when he selected the Small lambs last year he had • feeling in the back of his mind that if any lambs he picked would ever win in London it would be these. He considered that they were ths best he had ever selected. They were very well made lambs, he said. They were very meaty without being fat and were of a nice ahape with good hams. Mr Bell says that the area is a good one for lambs and he believes that a factor in this could be that the property is only about four or live miles from the sea—he believes that a district or property near the sea is good for sheep. Mr Bell has had a phenomenal run of success with his selections in the MidCanterbury competition. Ho has now had his selections win the competition at the local level no fewer than six times. On five occasions he has drafted the best six lambs in the competition, including three times in succession. The Mayfield Agricultural and Pastoral Association Cup goes to the drafter who does this. And on at least four occasions Mr Bell has selected the best single lamb In the competition. In this season's competition in Mid-Canterbury Mr Bel! also drafted the pen placed second to Mr Small's. It was from Mr J. C. Laing, of Hinds. He told Mr Small at the competition in Mid Canterbury last year that the one thing he now wanted to do was to win in London. Mr Small has been entering lambs in the competition since 1960 and in only about two years over that period has he not gained some placing. In two years—l 963 and again in this last season—-

he has had the top pen and also the top two pens of six lambs. On each occasion they were drafted by Mr Bell. In 1964, 1965 and 1967 Mr Small also had the best individual lamb in the contest. He has also won placings on the hoof. Mr Small agrees that the district is a good one for lambs, and in particular early lambs. Doing particularly weli in the most recent season a draft was taken before the competition lambs were selected.

Mr Small likes to see his ewes well fed right through the winter, but under the impact of the current drought he says that they are looking lighter now than he can remember for a long time.

For winter feed he grows chou moellier and turnips, rape and turnips and a small area of swedes and one of the riverbed paddocks is sown down again annually with turnips being sown as well as grass. He has also had 12 acres of lucerne for hay.

In recent years it has been the practice to oversow wheat in September with white clover and to use this as fattening feed for lambs before quitting them and closing the clover for a seed crop. Mr Small has found that lambs do well on the clover and sometimes ewes have been lambed on this, and where there is still some stubble with the clover it has afforded some protection for newly born lambs.

This season this feed has had to be used but there is still some left and the ewes are being run on to this for a few hours every day or every second day. The river-bed area also provides some useful shelter at lambing. Paddocks on the property are small and Mr Small has his ewes and lambs in fairly small mobs and tries to set stock them if he can. As well as the sheep Mr Small has a Milking Shorthorn stud of about 13 cows. About eight or nine cows are being milked and two or three are used as nurse cows. But cropping is the main pursuit on the farm and about 50 to 70 acres go into wheat, 10 to 12 acres to peas, and sometimes there is some barley. This last year IS acres was harvested for white clover seed and 10 acres for Ariki ryegrass, the grass that has lately been most used on the property. In the past season three acres were also in vetches for pigeon seed but this is not a regular part of the programme.