LIVESTOCK | ONFARM
Jon and Fiona Sherlock have implemented a range of strategies to reduce the impacts of drought on their North Waikato farm.
Front-footing drought fight Third-generation sheep farmers are adapting to climate change on drought-prone hills. Mike Bland reports.
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orth Waikato farmers Jon and Fiona Sherlock are finetuning their sheep policy in an attempt to reduce the impacts of increasingly
dry summers. The Sherlocks run Otorohaea, a 660-hectare (575ha effective) hill country farm at Waingaro, west of Ngaruawahia. Otorohaea has about 50ha of rolling ash contour and the rest is medium to steep hill, most of it Land Use Capability Class 6e and 7.
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Jon, a third-generation of Sherlocks on the farm, says the exposed hill country is challenging to manage at the best of times, but a double drought hasn’t made life any easier. “Because of the farm’s steepness it feels the drought more than easier-contoured properties, and it takes longer to recover.” Annual rainfall is typically about 1300mm, but the farm’s received much less than this over the last two years. So the Sherlocks have front-footed their approach to drought management.
“After the 2018-19 season we decided we had to come up with a strategy to cope with very dry years,” Jon says. “Drought comes with a cost, so you have to put a plan in place and make decisions early.” Otorohaea is split into about 70 paddocks averaging 2.7ha on the rollingmedium hill and 13.5ha on the steep hill. Sheep will always be a big part of the operation because of the steepness of the country. Coming out of a drought it has a 72:28 sheep to cattle ratio. Most lambs are
Country-Wide
October 2020