Hastings, New Zealand
November 16, 2009
The challenge of finishing cattle and sheep on steep hill country has been taken up by a South Canterbury farmer where the ground freezes in winter and the hills rise from 600 metres to 1,000 metres above sea level.
On a spur jutting out from the Hunter Hills, midway between Mt Nessing and Mt Nimrod, Robert and Jenny Hobson have farmed for 16 years at Nimrod Downs.
Usually the damp Mt Nessing mist cools the summer days and regular rainfall is “safe” to expect but it can also be dry, as it was for all of last January.
“It can blow from every direction and we can still miss the rain,” said Robert (photo).
He’s nearing the end of a build-up of cattle while reducing sheep numbers; the ewe flock more than halved to about 1,100 ewes.
The plan is to be less reliant on seasonal lamb prices, to grow more beef, and to have more options for either holding or selling stock.
An example this spring was a decision to sell ewe hoggets at $120 a head knowing they can be replaced from the autumn saleyards.
Robert’s vision is for their hill farm to carry 400 cows and heifers and rear 330 beef calves that will be finished to slaughter weights by two years of age. And to continue to grow heavy lambs.
“The reason for more beef is the economics. Lambs do struggle to grow to a good weight up here when we have only a twelve-week window after weaning,” said Robert, who must decide by late April whether to sell their under-weight lambs to other farmers as store stock or carry those lambs through winter when extra feed is costly.
“No farmer can afford the sort of hiding we had in 2007-08,” said Robert, recalling a slump when store lambs sold below $30 a head and calves for under $300.
Hand in hand with the change in livestock numbers is a determination to improve pasture, especially on the 200 hectares of more accessible and easier slopes that account for just over ten percent of the 1,800ha farm.
Different ryegrass cultivars have been tried for more intensive grazing and so far the high sugar grass AberDart, initially sown into 10ha paddock with clover, is showing the most promise as a permanent perennial ryegrass.
“We had 330 small lambs on the AberDart after weaning and then calves again three weeks later and they had all blown out incredibly,” said Robert.
“The lambs went in at 18-to-22kgs and eight weeks later we took the tops out of them at 36 kgs, so they did put on incredible growth and almost caught up with the middle mob.”
The farm’s future potential was also evident when more than 80 yearling steers were able to be strip-grazed for six weeks in the AberDart and clover paddock.
Some 25ha is now in AberDart and more being sown in selected paddocks, including areas of tussock covered hills accessed by a single tractor track across the upper Pareora Gorge.
On those slopes the regrassing is gradual with transitional crops such as rape, kale and turnip planted and grazed before a short-term ryegrass or cheaper cover is grown until soil fertility is adequate for higher quality pasture.
“One of the highlights for us each year is that we are now getting a new 10 hectare paddock of good grass on the hills,” said Robert.
On the ‘home block’ where the best paddocks lie, another 10ha paddock of AberDart and clover is being planted this spring for the purpose of quickly growing cattle to finished weights after coming off their second winter on the hills.
“If you can finish them on grass and don’t need to feed them on a short-term forage crop then that’s a real cost saving,” said Robert.
Annett Grain and Seed consultant David Schrader, based in Timaru, is confident of ongoing benefits as more high sugar grass pasture is established at Nimrod Downs.
It’s ewe hoggets recently sold at live-weights above 48kg after averaging an increase of 5kg in just 12 days on AberDart and clover - a growth rate equivalent to 400gms a day that matches the best expected of lambs on any farm.
“That’s after the worst winter we have seen here. We had snow over the top of fences,” said Robert.
“Some may think we are not capable of growing heavyweight lambs up here but we are doing it.”
He said a further bonus in AberDart pasture is its dense growth crowding out thistle and browntop grass regrowth.
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