Bhutan’s only sheep farm uses N.Z. expertise

Press, 20 November 1987, Page 14

Bhutan’s only sheep farm uses N.Z. expertise

It is mid-summer at 3000 m in the Himalayas, about 20 degrees centigrade and it has been drizzling for several days. Sheep are grazing in lush grass up to their bellies watched over by farm attendants. At night, they are shepherded into sheds to keep them safe from jackals and bears.

By

JUDITH HUGHEY,

After some problems, the United Nations pulled out and Australia’s Development Assistance Bureau came in in 1983.

This year Volunteer Service Abroad assigned an agriculturalist and former M.A.F. officer at Fairlie, Mr Owen Calvert, to the farm for two years. To the eyes of anyone familiar with sheep country , the farm at Dechen

This is the Kingdom of Bhutan’s only sheep farm, originally set up by the Royal Government and the United Nations in 1974 as a sheep and yak development project.

a former staff member

of “The Press,” now working for Volunteer Service Abroad in Bhutan.

Pelrithan looks much like any other sheep farm in an attractive setting, but the chhorten (a Buddhist memorial shrine) gives it its distinguishing mark of Bhutan. But, unlike most sheep farms there are no sheepdogs to greet the visitor; instead, the farm employs attendants who watch over the sheep during the day. Dechen Pelrithang, in the east of Bhutan, covers 287 ha of which 52ha are developed. The rest is in forest of native blue pine. The farm runs about 1000 sheep including 50 rams. Merino have been crossed with the local sheep kept by villagers for wool for weaving. The farm’s other block, Wabthang, 29km away by road (which took about 18 months to put through) covers 800 ha and is seen as having considerable potential for pasture development. Mr Calvert describes it as a big, south-facing terrace, quite a warm property in the northern hemisphere. At present it has only basic buildings, no fencing and no water supply. Most of the present development is at about 3200 m although the property ranges from 3000 m to 4000 m.

In eight days recently at Wabthang, 10 workers sowed 52ha of new pasture, spreading 20,000 kg of fertiliser by hand in a week.

According to Mr Calvert it was the best example of team work and production he has seen since he

arrived in Bhutan, north of India, in April. “They were out in the wind and rain working for hours then returned looking like ghosts with fertiliser all over them,” he said.

Two types of fertiliser are used — a single phosphate from India and a double from Australia. The workers have been back to Wabthang recently to transplant the clover and try the legume Maku lotus which Mr Calvert believes will do well. He sees economic benefits in trying grasses and legumes in an area where soil has a very low phosphate level and the application of fertiliser is 400 kg to a hectare, and where sheep are prone to bloating on the clover. Bloating is also believed to be caused by sheep rushing to feed, when they are let out of the sheds in the morning, and the low dry matter in clover which dominates the pasture.

Winter feed is also important. Winters are dry with temperatures between nought and five degrees Celsius. Pasture growth is limited to six months with very rapid growth in mid-summer — Bhutan’s wet season when temperatures range from aout 20deg. C to 25deg. C. Grass is cut for silage in July. By the end of the Kingdom’s sixth five-year plan which started this year the farm is expected to have 500 rams. An intensive programme of breeding and purchasing of local sheep is therefore necessary. It is for this reason that artificial insemination may be considered to supplement numbers as stock

from India is hard to come by. A Merino ewe from India would probably cost about $lOOO. Livestock from New Zealand and Australia are seen as an economic possibility, especially ewes. “With A.I. we could get new blood easily at quite a cheap price,” says Mr Calvert. The benefits of new blood are obvious. At present, Bhutan produces about 50,000 kg of wool a year, the potential wool use is seen as two million kilogrammes. The farm’s wool production per sheep (about 2kg) is double that of the local village sheep. Bhutan is a country where most women weave cloth, particularly for the traditional dress -r an ankle-length garment called a kira worn by women and the kneelength gho worn by men. Between 2000 and 3000 tourists come to the Kingdom each year so there is also potential in the tourist trade for selling cloth. The project is using the Merino to produce a cross with local sheep and a finer wool. The local sheep’s wool is described by Mr Calvert as very hairy and of little character. He hopes to be able to learn more from the villages about what type of wool they prefer for weaving. The farm distributes rams to districts for local breeding. Mr Calvert says they would hope to buy back or exchange rams every two or three years to prevent inbreeding. He says there is a lot of work to be done in the villages and sees the project’s extension work as important.

As part of the project, training for villagers in shearing techniques is part of the extension programme. At present, most shearing is done with knives and scissors. The farm’s project manager, Mr Lhawang Norbu, is a skilled shearer having learned in New Zealand and has trained others on the farm’s two stands run by a generator. Although the farm has a

reasonable amount of machinery, including Bhutan’s largest farm tractor, a Ford 6610, there is no front-end loader, no grader blade and no tipping trailer. And it is not easy to get supplies at a moment’s notice. While the property is under 1200 ha with only 1000 stock, there is a staff of more than 20 made up of sheep attendants, labourers and farm officers. Labourers earn about 15 ngultrums a day (about SNZI2), officers get between 800 ngultrums and 900 ngultrums a month. Wages reflect the present state of the country — it is listed as a least developed country by the United Nations and is undergoing slow, controlled development, with assistance from India and international aid agencies, with a large input from the United Nations.

In Bhutan, ruled by King Jigme Signe Wangchuck, 95 per cent of the pepple rely on agriculture and animal husbandry for their livelihood — their way of life is generally a long way from that on the Dechen Pelrithang farm (although Mr Calvert works by candlelight at night and the only hot water available in his house is heated from a large wooden stove). In village houses there is generally no running water and electricity is only slowly being distributed throughout the country. Mr Calvert says he finds his work rewarding, if not a little different to what he expected. He found he is doing more practical work, something that is certainly paying dividends — "assisting with farm tasks enables me to appreciate some of the difficulties and limitations and I enjoy the close contact with the others,” he says. New Zealand techniques are not new to Bhutan; several of the staff have had training there and at present one of the farm officers is in New Zealand.