Potatoes to feed hungry sheep

Press, 23 September 1988, Page 18

Potatoes to feed hungry sheep

Potatoes have become a significant part of the diet of Peter Grant’s sheep. There is little else for them to eat. A very dry late summer and autumn laid bare the pasture on his Rakaia farm. It was February when he started to feed out hay and grain to his 7000 sheep, feed which was meant to be used as a supplement in winter. Winter rainfall has restored a flush of green to his pasture but there is still not enough to support his stock. Moisture levels in the soil are enough to keep the pasture alive, but not enough to provide the much needed significant growth. Paddocks which usually support stock for up to two weeks during the spring are being grazed

out in a few days and are unable to fully recover before sheep are rotated back on. Things could have been much worse if not for 121 ha of young grass planted in the autumn. Paddocks which should have been shut up for lucerne production have to be used for grazing. Mr Grant started to use potatoes as a feed supplement because a glut of the vegetable meant they were cheap to buy. They also contained a large amount of water and the sheep like eating them. The dry weather has so far prevented Mr Grant from planting his barley and oat crops. From January to August, a total of 290 mm of rain has fallen on the

property, about half the average amount. Snow lay on the ground for two weeks in May, something almost unheard of previously in the area. The snow and accompanying frosts knocked back soil temperatures and prevented any growth during the winter. A heavy infestation of grass grubs is an added burden. About 15 per cent of his pasture has been affected by the grubs.

“There seems to be more of them this year and they are causing a lot more damage than usual.”

Mr Grant is not sure what he will do if the drought continues. “I just take it week by week, day by day. Each day that goes by is one day closer to the day that it does rain.

“You can’t let it get you down, otherwise I wouldn’t be farming.” Half of the sheep run by Mr Grant are Merinos which like the dry weather. Although the lack of feed might produce finer micron counts for the Merino wool, Mr Grant expects his wool weights to be below what they should be. In spite of the problems of farming through a drought, he does not regret a decision not to have installed an irrigation system and counts himself as “one of the lucky ones.”

Others who went into irrigation were still struggling to finance that spending and in some ways were worse off than himself.