History: Cassilis Dalkeith
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1908
1924
1927
1935
1937
1938
1939
1948
16 July 1948
"RESERVE STOCKING" AS DROUGHT INSURANCE; PRACTICAL RESULTS AT "DALKEITH," CASSILIS
By Our Special Representative
EXPLAINING his system of "reserve stocking" on the occasion of the visit of the R.A.S. fodder conservation judge to his property last week, Sir Frederick McMaster, of "Dalkeith," Cassilis, expressed the opinion that conservation of pastures was even more important than conservation of harvested fodder.
Although Sir Frederick was a competitor in the R.A.S, fodder conservation competition this year, he has made very little use of his stored fodder, and still has hay and silage which was conserved thirty years ago.
His view, is that understocking is uneconomical and that overstocking is ruinous.
He favors stocking to an extent which will provide feed through good and bad seasons for all his stock without "flogging out" his pastures when seasons are unfavorable.
When he decided that his land was overstocked, says Sir. Frederick, he reduced the numbers of his sheep. Cutting more and better wool, his reduced flock gave him a bigger return than he had obtained from the larger numbers.
No Chemical Fertilisers
He is no believer in chemical fertilisers, most of which, he declares, are fatal to the worms and bacteria which maintain the structure and condition of the soil.
Stocking on a moderate scale, he maintains, results in the coarser parts of grass and other plants being passed over by the stock and returned to the soil in the form of humus.
He claims also that stocking on a scale which gives the native pasture a fair chance prevents erosion and eliminates the menace of noxious weeds.
"I am not afraid of any weed that grows," he says. As an instance he mentions how Bathurst burrs once obtained a footing on a portion of "Dalkeith." He closed that section to stock and let the grass have its way, with the result that the burrs were choked out, and disappeared.
Galvanised burr, mint weed, and other pests can be controlled in the same way, he says.
Avoidance of overstocking appears to have eliminated the erosion menace on "Dalkeith," although there are many fairly steep slopes on the property.
There was a time, years ago, when erosion affected the property rather severely, and many deep gullies appeared on the slopes. The gullies are still there, but their banks and beds are so thickly clothed with pasture that erosion is impossible.
To questions about combating soil erosion and controlling noxious weeds Sir Frederick has only one answer, "Stock your land within its capacity, and neither weeds nor erosion will ever trouble you - and your stock and wool prices will be the envy of the man who flogs his land to death.1
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