How to make friends with wild Irishmen

Press, 30 August 1985, Page 10

How to make friends with wild Irishmen

One of the scourges of South Island hill country, matagouri or wild Irishman, can be encouraged to grow and in the short term to prosper so that its disadvantages can be reduced, according to a North Canterbury farmer, Mr Harry Pawsey. Mr Pawsey explained his “do nothing approach” to matagouri control to a special session of the biannual Hill and High Country Seminar, held at Lincoln College recently. For Mr Pawsey on Double Tops, on the Virginia Road, 20 km inland from Hawarden, matagouri brings benefits as part of stable ground clover of grass, tussock and native scrub plants. His common-sense approach is aimed at achieving a balance on lower fertility slopes while a gradual improvement in fertility eventually discourages the low, spreading habit of the matagouri and encourages the upright, bushy growth which is valuable for shelter.

To spend big money on chemicals or plan and execute burns is not necessary, he said, and in the case of burning really only puts the matagouri back to the spreading, irritating stage.

Harry Pawsey put a thoughtful and well-argued case to the seminar as part of a trio of papers on different approaches to matagouri. He was criticised by some questioners for creating a noxious weeds problem of major proportions for himself in later years or his descendants but he is firmly convinced of the wisdom of his approach for his country. Following the seminar, on a walk round Double Tops, Mr Pawsey demonstrated the practicalities of his course of non-action. He might well have detractors, but he must also have a lot of support, because like Alf Hanlon his argument is very convincing.

Double Tops is 2705 ha with 400 ha rolling cultivateable downs, 1100 ha improved tussock and the remainder unimproved. It receives about 750 to 800 mm of rain a year but the altitude (500 m to 1000 m) and the predominantly northerly and westerly aspect just encourage the

nor’wester to whisk a lot of that moisture away. Mr Pawsey is carrying 5500 .Corriedales with a small injection of Booroola gene, 200 Angus and AngusHereford cross cows, with 1300 ewe hoggets, and 60 replacement heifers for a total of 8500 stock units. Lambing averages around 100 per cent and the wool clip is 3.8 kg. Three quarters of the lambs are fattened.

He said matagouri was a low fertility colonising legume which responded to superphosphate faster than white clover. It was able to dominate because it was deep-rooted and able to withstand moisture stress better. On many steep, shallow soil or shaley areas of Double Tops Mr Pawsey believed it was better to leave the matagouri for soil conservation than remove it.

But it did not like a vigorous sward of grass and clover growing hard up against its stump or heavy concentrations of dung and urine.

It responded by growing more upright, reducing the spread of ground runners and eventually becoming less vigorous. These factors led Mr Pawsey to the belief that management over a longer term, say 15 years, was the answer to matagouri infestation. “In the short to the medium term we will have to learn to live with it until sufficient increase in fertility has occurred so that the matagouri .is less able to compete and is choked out,” he said. “The real problem is that fertility build-up is very slow and may not occur for

reasons of low rainfall, low pH and money. “So there may be a strong case to leave some sites alone and be content with low productivity.” Forestry may be the best land use in these places. Mr Pawsey then summarised the disadvantages and advantages of matagouri and came to the overall conclusion that its presence was beneficial. Among the disadvantages were: ® Removal of land from grazing where dense, scrubby matagouri hinders the stock and encourages rank growth. “It is usually the result of

an ambitious development programme where the area of land topdressed exceeds the available grazing control.”

• Mustering difficulties. Most musterers dream of the long clean slopes where dogs can hunt forever and man can wander along without having to check behind matagouri for tail-enders, but then life is full of frustrations.

© Reduced wool returns. Mr Pawsey conceded that matagouri leaves and twigs in fleece wool could raise the vegetable matter test to 1.5 per cent and result in a discount of perhaps 15 cents a kilogram. But he does try to finish off his sheep on the improved paddocks before shearing and a shower of rain can make an appreciable improvement in the V.M.

Matagouri also harvests wool on its thorns but Mr Pawsey said this was probably not a significant percentage of the total wool clip of summer-shorn sheep. ® Lambs weaned off ewe from matagouri-infested country can have a high incidence of scabby mouth. This can reduce lamb growth but more importantly a few infected stock will prevent the freezing works from accepting stock for slaughter until the scabs have healed, which is usually about three weeks. Mr Pawsey then turned to the advantages of matagouri which mostly revolve around physical benefits from the colonising plant. “Matagouri provides a microclimate and tall standing plants can provide considerable shelter from the nor’west,” he said. “At Double Tops we have achieved similar lambing percentages with stock left to their own devices on the hill as those on intensively lambed paddocks. “Indeed if a southerly blows up we prefer to get

all of the stock off the paddocks onto the northerly aspect tussock. “Depressed final tailing percentages have been observed on blocks laid bare by fire compared with wellcovered hill blocks of the same aspect.” Mr Pawsey set stocks for lambing on his hill blocks, which as a result of considerable subdivision and oversowing, now average 80 ha each.

Matagouri also helped stock get their first feed after a snowfall when it sprang up from under the mantle and provided a useful footing for cattle walking around snow-covered or wet, greasy slopes. “When bulldozing a track or fenceline through scree I am often amazed at the extensive, deep root system of matagouri.

“On steep rubbly or scree slopes it seems to take about five years for the top batter of a new track to consolidate, usually after the matagouri has re-estab-lished a new root system. “What would happen to the scree gullies if the matagouri was not there?”

Another advantage was the reserve of feed which built up under the umbrella of the matagouri which can be utilised by hungry, more persistent animals in a drought. “It is difficult to quantify the advantages or disadvantages of matagouri, except for the lower wool prices because of moite. “On balance, I consider that the disadvantages of grazing loss and mustering difficulties do not equate the benefits of microclimate, shelter and feed reserve.”

He multiplied out the cost of increased vegetable matter in the wool at perhaps $l5OO to $2OOO a year, depending on the numbers of ewes carried on the hill

country before the February shearing. The management of matagouri country was then covered in detail in Mr Pawsey’s paper, stressing the aim of establishing a balance between native and introduced species. Burning on exposed faces may only leave ground and climate conditions which encouraged the re-emergence of matagouri and thistles, he said, not grasses and clover.

He fenced to aspect and to soil type and considered each block as an entity.

Stock pressure through subdivision was very important, he said, because too little pressure encouraged the growth of tagg which formed impenetrable barriers to sheep round matagouri sites. “We have found that 4500 ewes mob grazing 80 ha blocks fenced according to aspect will cover most of the block criss-crossing the areas of tagg and forming tracks. “The next time round these tracks become more numerous and wider and verged with shorter, more palatable grass and clover. “The matagouri becomes confined to the tagg and starts to grow more upright. “Cattle, particularly in the autumn and early winter, will graze hard into the tagg when held on small blocks.

“Considerable progress could be made in controlling tagg or stock could be mobstocked all year round. “Unfortunately forcing pregnant stock into tagg is not the best way to achieve satisfactory production. “Mobstocking is only possible after weaning for a short period, so that ewes do not lose liveweight prior to tupping, and in winter. “One growthy spring can appear to undo all the good work of previous winters. “Cattle are very useful

for keeping tussock land open over the spring.” Mr Pawsey urged hill farmers to keep the fertiliser up to the matagouri even though it appeared to result in the growth of more prickles rather than pasture. “Normal topdressing of all the improved blocks should continue irrespective of the matagouri infestation. “Fertiliser will encourage the matagouri to grow tall and let the stock into the sheltered pasture below. In time the improved fertility will choke out the weaker matagouri leaving a nutritious sheltered grazing block.”

He uses about 125 kgs of sulphur superphosphate annually for each hectare of the improved country. Much of the improvement was done with L.D.E.L. finance and the seed mixture included white and red clover, Nui ryegrass and cocksfoot.

Mr Pawsey received a lot of praise from farm management experts during a field day on Double Tops during 1981 for his balanced hill development. His policy was to fence about two years ahead of the oversowing and over the last 10 years he has raised stock numbers from 5000 to 8500 while another 700 ha was added to the property six years ago.

His final piece of advice was to avoid burning of matagouri, which he said converted the plant from an upright on into a prostrate shrub and delayed the longterm establishment of a balanced pasture interspersed with tall matagouri.

“My final message is to put up with the nuisance of matagouri in the short term, keep fencing and topdressing and in the long term matagouri will be your friend.”