S Block shut down

Press, 4 March 1988, Page 23

S Block shut down

I ' I The; irrigated sheep production farmlet at the Winchjmore Irrigation Research Station, near Ashburton, was recently closed after 35 years service: The 11-hectare S Block farmlet had proven; consistently that high production figures, were capable under a low input irrigated farming system. ..However, the days when S Block drew strong interest from farmers had passed. And because the block did not appear to be making any further rapid scientific advances, the farmlet was reluctantly shut down. • I The low input system of four' irrigations (compared with the normal seven) combined with a moderate input of fertiliser and intensive grazing still permitted the S Block's pastures to be maintained at a high standard. Last year S Block carried 15.3 ewes

ahd four hoggets a hectare. j The 1986-87 season also saw an improvement in the gross income from $604 a hectare to $BO4. i Mr R'ay Moss, a technical officer at Winchmore, said the main reasons for the substantial increase were the improved returns from wool and pelts and also from lamb carcases and cull ewes. ■ He added that the 33 per cent increase in gross income occurred in spite of a 23 per cent decrease in lamb, down from 260kg/ha in 1985-86 to 200kg/ha last year, and a marginal, slip in wool sales.

( An inexplicable drop in lambing percentages, down from 154 per cent to 128 per cent last year, was the main cause of the reduced lamb sales, he said. I Total expenditure was maintained at a similar level to the previous year

and, combined with an increase in the gross income, resulted in a surplus of $333/ha for reinvestment during the 198687 year. “This return recorded in times of financial adversity illustrates the positive aspects of the low input system used on S Block,” Mr Moss said.j The system has neither pasture replacement costs nor cropping expenses and required little supplementary j feed and ■no weed control measures or insecticides. “At 38 years of age these ' pastures have clearly ; ; demonstrated their many positive attributes,"; he said. Although the self-con-tained unit was shut down at the end of last yeap the pastures, will be maintained ' for another (two years while new research and sponsorship opportunities jare explored.;