High-Country "Run" the Geography of Extensive Pastoralism in New Zealand

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
This article is a detailed topographic study of the habitat and practice of one operational unit in the tussock high country of South Island, N. Zealand. The high country includes slightly < 12% of the total area of the Dominion. This region, the leeward flank of the Southern Alps, a country of steep broken slopes sparsely covered with yellow brown steppe grasses and topped by massive grey slides of talus and frost-bitten rocky pinnacles, is a land of extensive pastoralism carrying almost 2 million sheep, predominantly of the merino type, on its 7.7 million acres. Held mainly by the Crown and educational institutions, the land is leased to graziers in large blocks averaging in some districts 14,000 acres, and sometimes totaling 100,000 acres, with flocks including up to 20,000 sheep. Items derived are fine wool, store sheep, deer and rabbit skins. The region of the mt. sheep stations has gone backward. Old practices, such as burning the grass and overstocking the range, still remain. In some parts rabbits, deer, and erosion aid in the deterioration of the runs. Little planting of winter feed is done, partly because of short-term leases and the uncertainty of renewal of these contracts. Scientific and progressive management, however, are not sufficient to meet the physical problems since the problems are also economic and political. Population is sparse and voting power is low. Revegetating the range with fodder plants, fencing more of the blocks to permit conservational grazing, introducing beef cattle to control the rank tussock and shrubby growth hitherto burned, and securing a more adequate labor supply are pressing needs. The article presents a detailed study of one Unit as an illustration of the characteristic traits of a region of which its 54,000 acres is only a fragment.

This publication has 0 references indexed in Scilit: