Lambing off to bright start
BY PETER WATSON PETERW@NELSONMAIL.CO.NZ
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A sunny, warm start to lambing has put a smile on Sue Parkes' face.
Twelve-hour days checking on 3800 ewes and 1000 hoggets at her and husband Ian's property in Eighty-eight Valley, near Wakefield, are not quite so draining when the weather is good and the lambing quick and almost trouble-free, apart from a few bearing problems and cast sheep.
Mrs Parkes, who does the lambing beat at Punawai with the help of a shepherd while Mr Parkes keeps an eye on their leased blocks at Kirkwood in the Moutere, where lambing has already finished, said it had been an exceptional beginning to the season.
"We've had little rain at Punawai, very few deaths and while the drop is down a bit by tailing time we are probably going to have just as many or more live lambs than last year."
Into at least her 10th year lambing after bringing up their now adult children, she said it was a "full on" time of year, which usually did not end until 7pm at night after she had finished mothering up orphan lambs. Lambing hoggets, which tended to have more problems, added to the workload.
"I don't look forward to it but when it's here it's OK, but at the end of it I'm very tired.
"I enjoy the dog work, and would like to ride my horse more but don't get much time for that and you can't carry many lambs while doing that."
At Punawai, which has been owned by the Parkes family for generations, sheep carrying multiple lambs are kept on the flat where there is more grass and they can be checked daily, while those scanned with single lambs are left on the hills to give birth with little intervention.
It's a way of making the best use of time and energy to cover one of Nelson's bigger pastoral operations.
Mr Parkes said because of the dry autumn their romney-based ewes – totalling 5800 over all their properties – would probably lamb about 157 per cent, 10 per cent lower than last year's bumper crop, while their hogget drop would be about 100 per cent. He expected to end up at tailing time with close to 140 per cent overall.
With the soil temperature about one to 1.5 degrees Celsius warmer than normal, grass growth had been excellent, which had helped ewes maintain condition through lambing, he said.
Brian Storer, who runs 1600 romney-perendale ewes at Pokororo, said his start to lambing had been "so good it's scary".
"We've been blessed with the weather."
If all went well, he too expected to end with a 140 per cent tally.
Beef + Lamb northern South Island economic services manager John Holmes said while many of those on colder hill country were yet to start lambing, he expected the drop to be down 5 per cent to 10 per cent on last year due to the drier than average autumn limiting flushing feed to ewes and leading to later mating.
Total ewes mated in the Tasman/Nelson district was estimated at 215,000, down 2.7 per cent on the previous year.
The mild weather would lift lamb survival rates, he said.
- © Fairfax NZ News
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