SHEEP AND THE HIGH-COUNTRY RUNS.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XVIII, Issue 2, 20 February 1919, Page 90

SHEEP AND THE HIGH-COUNTRY RUNS.

By

H. T. TURNER,

i, Fields Supervisor, Timaru.

It has been difficult to estimate the losses sustained through last winter's heavy snowfall in the high pastoral country of the South Island. Little could be known until after shearing, and even then the stragglers' muster has to be made before any accuracy can be arrived at. Those living on agricultural country where snow rarely, if ever, amounts to more than a passing inconvenience have little conception of the enormous difficulties and the harrassing anxiety experienced by those who occupy high country when a heavy fall of snow occurs, especially when it comes in the dead of winter and consequently with little prospect of an early ■thaw.. There has been a good deal .of talk about cutting up the back-country runs. Indeed, a lot of the better class of pastoral country has already been cut up, with beneficial results to the country generally. But in subdividing the high and more dangerous class of country a good deal of .judgment will need to be exercised. No doubt a good deal of the high country is capable of being cut up into smaller areas than it is at present, but at the best it can only carry a very scanty population. For nine months in the year the greater part of the back country may be considered safe for sheep, and the obvious suggestion would appear to be that the sheep should be brought down on to safe country • during the three dangerous months. This is feasible to some extent, and is done by some runholders with regard to a portion of their flocks. But, unfortunately, the area of the high country is so large, and the extent of the low country available for additional ’ sheep during the winter is so relatively small, that the transference of sheep from high to low country during the winter on anything like a wholesale scale presents what appears to be insuperable difficulties. Practically all that is done at present is to get the sheep as much as possible on to the lower or warmer faces before the winter sets in—and then hope for an open winter. A hundred acres of good turnips may represent more feeding-value than some thousands of acres of mountainous country, even when it is not covered with snow ; but to bring merino sheep from high country down on to turnips would not improbably mean that they would starve in the midst of plenty. Merino sheep from the hills do not take readily to turnips, and yet it seems hardly likely that the present system will continue for all time without some modification'.

Under the present system all that can be done after a heavy snowfall is to send .out as many . men as can be got together—generally an insufficient number get the sheep on to the sunny faces, where a certain amount of thaw may have taken place, or, at any rate, where the snow is likely to thaw first. • This is what is generally known as “ snow-raking,” and most toilsome, tedious work it is, and at the same time most unsatisfactory to the owners of the sheep. The days are short, long distances have to be traversed 'to get at the sheep,' and the frost at high altitudes when the whole surrounding country is all under snow is most intense. The sheep are sometimes frozen to the ground or to the snow in their camps.

It is a pitiful sight to go over country that has been devastated by an unusually severe fall of snow, after the snow has cleared away, and to come across the remains of sheep lying in their camps in tens, twenties, and even hundreds-—knowing that the animals were probably some weeks in starving to death. It is not at all unusual to find that snowedup sheep, in the stress of extreme hunger, have eaten the wool off each others backs. It is remarkable the length of time it takes to starve a merino sheep to death in the snow, providing that it is in good condition when the snow falls. After a week of starvation it will come out as fresh and lively as ever, and one hears occasionally remarkable accounts of the length of time during which sheep have been known to be absolutely without. food and still survive. y •

. The liability to loss from severe, snow varies considerably in different parts of the back country. Some runs are much more liable to snow than others of an equal or even greater altitude, but much, of course, depends on the aspect. If a heavy fall of snow was a thing to be looked for every winter the present system of dealing with the high country could not continue; but our winters are very erratic. Take the Mackenzie country, for example ; it.is one of the coldest parts of Canterbury. Heavy snow falls every winter on the summits, of the higher ranges, but the sheep are never left up there during winter. Below a certain altitude, however, there may be no destructive snow for several successive winters, as had been the case for the last eight or ten years, and there is therefore a great temptation to chance the weather. Seasons, good or bad, appear to have ■ a tendency to run in groups ; winter after winter may remain mild, but there are bound to be extreme weather conditions at intervals, and then the loss may be so great that it will take the profits of perhaps two or three good years or more to make it up. There are many instances in past experience where men with small capital have taken up back-country runs and have been set back for life by experiencing a heavy snowfall within the first couple of years. • .

It is a great question if there are any practicable means that can be taken to avoid or modify this serious trouble. The extent of our high back country is large, and it is important to the whole community, not only to the present occupiers, that it should be put to the best possible use, the matter being one for all time. There cannot be any question that merino sheep, or sheep containing a large strain of the merino, will always be the most suitable class of stock for the country under consideration. The ' runholders are very reluctant to incur any large expense in bringing the stock down to the low . country every winter as a regular thing, but if it were customary to bring down a portion of the stock — the —much of the sweeping loss which occasionally takes place under the present system would be avoided. It- is contended that as a lot of the runs have now been subdivided into smaller areas this will get over a certain amount of the trouble. But much depends how the country is divided. If one man gets most of the warm faces and another most of the back faces it would not tend to improve matters much. If modified conditions of tenure were given as regards compensation for improvements more might be done in the way of growing fodder for emergencies. The growing of different kinds of fodderprincipally in the form of hayshould be gone in for more than it has been in the past, and a big supply would have to be kept

on hand ready for any contingencies. Even if the fodder is kept for three or four years it will come in all right in the long-run. This applies more especially to half-bred and crossbred sheep, also Romneys, which are being increasingly run on the high country. The aversion of merinos to any form of artificial feeding is well known.