Cheviots Boost Production
by Ross Annabell
On a hunch two years ago Makara Station’s Brian Drake switched from Perendale rams to Cheviots for his Perendale cross flock.
Brian decided to take a few Cheviots on trial from Gilbert Timms’ Ashby Stud, and has switched completely to Cheviot rams for the second year in a row because they produce bigger, more vigorous and faster growing lambs, higher lambing percentages, and a decided jump in returns.
“Now I’m buying all Cheviot rams, and from next year we’ll be running all Cheviot rams on Makara Station,” he says. “We’re getting more lambs away with heavier weights by Christmas.”
Makara Station is on the North Island’s high, bleak and rugged southwestern flank, 17km west of Wellington city. Brian managed Makara Station for seven years for Landcorp, before he and his wife Joy leased the farm from new owners, Meridian Energy.
Brian attributes the flock improvements partly to hybrid vigour, and partly to the adaptability of the Cheviot to the particularly harsh climatic conditions on the exposed and unusually steep Makara hill country, one of New Zealand’s windiest sites. It’s being investigated for a wind power complex by Meridian.
Most of Makara’s 900 ha, reaching up to 243m above sea level, is raked month in and month out either by howling southerly gales off Cook Strait or biting salt and rain-laden northerlies off the Tasman sea. Makara’s fences survive only eight years through salt corrosion.
“I’ve seen it blow that hard that I’ve had to hang on to the fences, or crawl on my knees,” Brian says.
More than 70 percent of the steep and rugged hills are covered with a mix of gorse, tawhini and manuka, after high costs and low returns have forced Brian to abandon topdressing and weed clearance for the last seven years.
But he reckons the switch to Cheviot rams is saving their bacon, by allowing them to produce heavier store lambs at a steady $60 per head which are strongly sought after.
Brian agrees that lamb prices have improved since the sire switch, but we’re getting a lot more lambs away with heavier weights by Christmas.
“ I don’t suggest changing to Cheviots would show the same benefits everywhere. I think much of the improvement is directly due to our particularly harsh environment, which the Cheviots seem to handle very well.”
“They are easy care sheep, and they are big and fast moving. They’re very free moving and they muster well. You only have to bark your dogs and they’re up the top of the hill right away.
He says lambing is up by at least 20 percent.
He says a good lamb crop is vital for Makara’s economic survival, because topdressing and weed clearance is virtually impossible, and the wool income is slashed by high vegetable content from grazing the gorse/tawhini/ manuka-covered slopes.
“The only area we can produce good wool is from our hoggets, which we run on our clean 200 ha of hummocky tops.
“We’re going to switch to a full Cheviot flock, which will take about five years. There’s not a hell of a difference yet in the look of them, but they’re getting more open- faced than the Perendale cross sheep.”
Brian is no stranger to either Perendales or Cheviots, or various other breeds for that matter. He began his career 40 years ago aged 15 as a shepherd with W.D. Law’s Te Rohenga stud near Shannon, working with Perendales, Cheviots and Suffolks, before managing stations for Landcorp with Perendales and Romney and Romney/ Perendale cross flocks.