Waiau property to be settled next year

Press, 26 September 1980, Page 14

Waiau property to be settled next year

The Lands and Survey Department has another property coming up for settlement in North Canterbury. Like the two units settled on Glenbourne farm settlement in 1978 it is in the Waiau district. Known as Tinline Downs, it is 14 kilometres from the Waiau township and 147 kilometres north of Christchurch.

The Commissioner of Crown Lands, Mr E. J. Davies, expects that applications for the property will be called for later in the year and they will close before Christmas. Applicants. will probably be interviewed in February and following a ballot the lucky new settler will take up his farm late in March or early in April. Although the charges for the property have not been finalised yet, ' it is likely to require a larger deposit from the incoming farmer than most Lands Department units because it is bigger and will be carrying more stock units — about 4150 instead of an average of about 2800. Tinline Downs was taken up by the department in 1968. The wooden homestead, the earliest part of which is about 60 years old, is on the Sherwood road and is located on a block of only about 18ha along with a married couple’s cottage and a granary and implement shed. The main part of the property of about 595.2 ha lies across the Lottery River and for about 12 to 15 days a year it is cut off from the outside world — then according to Mr D. E. (Don) White, who has been manager for 11 years, no vehicle can cross it. This difficulty of access is one of the drawbacks of the property. Mr White recalls that on four occasions sales of stock have had to be cancelled because it has not been possible to get stock out. It has also resulted in ewes getting sleepy sickness before lambing when it was not possible to get feed to them, and once Mr White had to swim a horse across the river to release rams which had been in the woolshed for three days. Normally, however, a four-wheel drive tractor can get across the river but recently a utility vehicle dropped into a hole when crossing the river and by the time the manager had been able to wade through the river to the other side and summon a tractor to pull it out the water was flowing through the cab and the other two occupants of the vehicle were on the roof. The department has to

maintain a track through the riverbed. The 577 ha block across the river is, however, the heart of the property. It is estimated to support about 3000 stock units. About 195.5 ha of this country, ranging from about 330 m to 604 m in altitude, has been cleared of manuka scrub and sown to grass after cultivation. The whole of the area was topdressed and oversown with, ryegrass and cocksfoot and white, red and subterranean clover about 11 years ago at about 13.5 kg per ha or 12 lb per acre. Over the last 10 years about 242 kg per ha or 213 lb of maintenance superphosphate has been applied per acre annually. ■ -f The country now constitutes something of a patchwork quilt of open pasture land and patches of manuka and tawhini, with the latter, together with rushes, showing some tendency, to come back on the cultivated land, but the scrubland has the advantage of providing shelter for stock on this country which is susceptible to snow. While the last two winters have been relatively free of snow with only two or three falls on each occasion, three years ago there were two falls of more than 0.6 m or 2ft each and a total of 2.5 m or Bft for the season. In one winter there were 19 separate falls on the paddocks. Just exactly what the annual rainfall is on the property Mr White finds it a little hard to say. For his first five years it ranged from 875 nun to 1100 mm. For the last five years it has been between 1750 mm and 2000 mm. In a number of other ways there has been considerable activity on Tinline Downs since the State took over. There are 27 paddocks on the block and some 22 to 24km of fences have been rebuilt with posts and standards and six plain wires and a barb. Eight to nine kilometres of fully formed shingle roads also now facilitate movement around the block. The woolshed just across the Lottery, which dates back 70 years, was extended five years ago and now provides night accommodation for 600

shearing, and the sheepyards, which were rebuilt about nine years ago, are now able to hold about 4000 sheep. Cattle yards were also built about 11 years ago and they will hold about 250 head. In the last two to eight years three hay sheds, each capable of holding 1500 bales, have been built. About 5000 to 5500 bales of hay are fed dur-

woolly ewes prior to ing the winter to sheen and cattle and of this some 1500 bales are mu-, e on the homestead block and the rest is bought in. Sometimes when the Lottery is playing up there are problems in getting the hay trucks in. One of the bams is adjacent to the airstrip and when it is not being used for hay it is used to store up to 80 tonnes of super, Up until now. the property has been, served by natural water arid dams for stock water, but the Waiau rural water supply scheme reached the locality at the beginning of the year and as soon as lambing is over — it is just starting on this country and weather permitting, a start will be made on the

trough water supply system. At this stage the easiest areas have been cleared and cultivated so that there is scope for further development in this way and it is said that with relatively limited, development it might be pos-> sible to raise overall stock

installation of a piped and carrying to about 5000 stock units. ■.

A vital role in the overall stocking capacity of the property is played by another 1849 ha block of higher tussock .country rising ' to over •' 1538 m (5000 ft with both snow and silver tussock on it. Some of it ranks -as class 7 rind 8 country. It involves crossing the Lottery a second time to reach it and at present it is unfenced . and undeveloped. It is subject to geological erosion but at the same time under light stocking there has been some natural revegetation occurring .on - eroded slopes. At the moment 500 wethers are run on this country all of the year

2500 ewes — all of those on the property — go on to this country from mid January to mid April to enable the growth on the main block to build up for the winter, and the cows and calves run on the adjoining river bed from after calving for about nine months of the year.

and between 2000 and With the snow problems on the country, Mr White has had to snow rake for the wethers at least twice during a.winter. The new settler will not ' be able to obtain a title to it but will be peri mitted to graze this area on a permit basis, which will 'be reviewed annually and fixed according to . the , state of the. country. It is expected that something like 1000 to .1200 stock units will be allowed on this country. The Tinline Downs homestead is almost at the end of the Sherwood road but it is served daily by . the rural ' mail service, : which also brings milk, and the school bus also calls daily to pick up and deposit pupils going to the Waiau primary school and the Culverden area secondary schooL But the relative remoteness of the. , property means that it costs about $1 to get a lamb to Christchurch for slaughter, $1.15 to $1.20 to get a : ewe to Addington, $ll to get a cull cow to Addington and $3 to get a calf to the Culverden sale. In recent years stock performance has improved with the lambing percentage last year being 114 and the previous year

108. Over the last five years, however, the average would be about 94 to 95 pet cent, and over the same period the calving percentage would be about 89 per cent Around 40 per cent of the wether lambs now go ©ff as primes with the rest going for sale as

stores. And the calves go off as weaners. As at June 30 this year Tinline was carrying 2240 . ewes (Halfbred-Romney cross), 717 ewe hoggets, .190 wether hoggets, 475 adult wethers, 54 rams, 157 in-calf Hereford cows, 20 rising two-year heifers, 28. rising one-year heifers and six steers and three It is ■'thought that the stock figures at settlement might be a little less than the department has recently been carrying, as .it has been possible to also graze cattle Jn .the winter in the Waiau river bed at Parnassus. Likely figures at settlement ar6 2300 . ewes, 650 ewe hoggets, 100 wether hoggets, 500 wethers, 50 rams, 125 cows, 25 rising two-year heifers, 25 rising one-year heifers and four bulls.

All of the rams will be Halfbreds but the ewes will include some Romney cross as well as Halfbreds. The cattle will all be Herefords.

After Tinline it is on the cards that settlement of some of the country in North Canterbury that was initially taken up by the State for nassella tussock control will follow — it could start coming up in the following year.