Tussock country management: principles and practice

Abstract

This study is a distillation of farmer opinions and practices collected on visits to 91 South Island hill and high country farmers and of the research work and theory related to the management of the tussock country and values of tussocks. The study initially measured sheep and cattle stocking loads on hill and high country runs. Grazing management records were made for some of the high and hill country farms visited. However, there were difficulties in recording stock movements for some properties as the frequency of shifts and uses of each block were often not available. Only those runs where stock movements were easy to record had complete grazing records. The sample of farms with good records was thus mainly high country stations of limited subdivision, and only represented one situation. A list of the runs and some of their characteristics are shown in the appendix. The properties cannot be identified in this table because of the need for confidentiality. The study is in two main parts: the first section is concerned with tussock country management and is divided into topics that appeared to be of concern in tussock country stocked with beef cattle and sheep; the second section is on the value of tussocks in the tussock grasslands as indicated by runholders in the hill and high country and by a review of the relevant literature.