The Road to Castle Hill by Christine Fernyhough

Author:Christine Fernyhough [Christine Fernyhough]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781775530947
Publisher: Penguin Random House New Zealand
Published: 2013-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

Country cooking

Despite all the negative publicity, I really like Perendales. They are smart sheep with spirit and attitude, and I soon discovered the basis for all the Perendale jokes. They are no respecters of turn-of-the-century Merino fences. For Perendales, the grass is always greener in the next paddock. That is why they are my Westie Girls. I keep them west of State Highway 73, where we have done re-fencing and there is a much better chance of keeping them in. But I still haven’t been able to drench them, they are so strong.

After buying the Perendales we made some rather strange decisions. First we culled our Merino hoggets, goodness knows why. It was definitely a mistake. Next I went off by myself to a sale of Merino ewes at Omarama, south of Twizel. I had already received advice from a young farmer who was no longer in Merinos about what I should bid for. I needed sheep that would transfer well from that lower, southern area up to Castle Hill. He recommended the Berwen Station capital stock, (the top mob, kept for breeding) which would clearly be much better than the annual drafts where they were simply culling the sheep. At the sale, I hated the fact that unlike antique or collectibles auctions, where I was knowledgeable, I did not know what I was doing. I bent down and pretended to look them over and condition score them, but it was all a front. Then I sat nodding at my agent, Craig Miller, and purchased four hundred and eighty five ewes for $60 each, having just sold my Merino hoggets for $56 a head. The Berwens were mixed age ewes — a few two-tooths, and four-tooths, six-tooths and full mouths. I thought that as they had already had lambs they would be practised at giving me a harvest. Unfortunately they did not do very well at Castle Hill and people have told me since that the conditions at Berwen are too different from the altitude and climate at this high country station. The stock finds it too difficult to adjust.

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