The late Arthur Urquhart formerly of Erewhon Station at the head of the Rangitata Gorge in mid Canterbury was one of New Zealand’s foremost merino farmers and breeders.
Erewhon lies between the Havelock and Potts rivers and also includes country between the Clyde and Lawrence rivers. It runs from about 1850 feet above sea level at the homestead to 9000 feet at Mount Arrowsmith with stock going up to about 7500 feet in the summer. The country has tussock-covered faces running up to shingle and rock, but much is steep, bluffed and covered in scrubby bush. Up as high as 5000 feet there is clover and cocksfoot among the tussocks in places. The basins are mainly in carpet grass with a little snow grass. The rainfall varies from 60 inches to 95 inches a year and the early snows form an upper boundary for the stock in winter.
Although renowned for pioneering high country tourism and deer farming in New Zealand, the tall, lightly built and athletic Arthur described himself as “a sheep farmer before anything else.” When Arthur and his new bride Freda (now living in Christchurch) took up the pastoral lease on Erewhon in 1943, it comprised 35,500 acres. The first year the 1800 sheep produced 18 bales of wool.
“Everybody told him he was mad. The station had been through a succession of owners and nobody had made a success of it,” recalls son Colin Urquhart.
“The wool virtually went into one line—the sandy line. The top price was 33 pence a pound which is the equivalent of about 70c per kg. Then it was a pretty low price. Good wools fetched 50 pence a pound. The first years on Erewhon he made more money from deer skins than wool.”
At the time there was no over sowing or top dressing. Lambing percentages were in the mid 60s and the ewes lambed on native grasses in the riverbeds. His challenge was to increase the quantity and quality of the wool produced by utilising his exceptional stockmanship skills and knowledge of high country farming. By 1956 Erewhon was running up to 6500 sheep.
Subsequently Arthur and Freda acquired the lease of the neighbouring 27,000 acre Mount Potts block. This provided them with safer winter country so the total flock on the two properties was increased to 11,000 and cattle were introduced. Accordingly the wool clip increased to 280 bales a year. The quality improved too--at the sales Erewhon wool regularly fetched high prices.
Erewhon Merino Stud
Unable to source suitable breeding stock, Arthur had started his own stud in 1947. This proved to be pivotal because it enabled him to produce stock that could cope with the harsh conditions. He wanted to breed a sheep with a long useful life, maintaining its constitution and ability to produce a big fleece of the desired style of wool even at an old age. He also sought to breed sheep that did not itch and which therefore did not rub against banks so much and get sand and dirt in their wool. He also wanted wool that was well nourished and free allowing it to wet quickly and therefore also dry quickly.
He was often quoted as saying: “I always say that the polls are not bred for this generation but for the rising generation.”
The original Erewhon bloodlines (polled and horned) are still available today through son Colin and Lil Urquhart’s Erewhon and Erewhon Poll stud at Sheffield on the Canterbury downs. They were also part of the founding stock of Awapiri stud up the Awatere Valley in Marlborough. Arthur’s daughter Bev Black (nee Urquhart) and her husband Graham own this stud.
The Storm of 1967
Although on the eastern side of the Southern Alps, Erewhon is nearer the West Coast than the East Coast. This proved to be fatal on 16 November 1967. Four foot of snow fell at Erewhon homestead and 5 ft fell at Broad Leaf hut at 3000 ft. Based on the experience of his father and grandfather, it was the single greatest fall of snow in the area at least since 1880.
The snow had a devastating effect on stock and farming at Erewhon. Virtually all the lambs as well as 3000 adult sheep were lost. It was the equivalent of 10” of rain and created many avalanches. The following February there were still big piles of thawing snow full of sheep carcasses.
More than half of the merino stud lambs and quite a few maiden ewes and ram hoggets died. The breeding stock were not replaceable. Sheep that might have suited his country could only come from other properties that were also hard hit by the storm. It took eight years to get back to the pre-1967 stock numbers. Some of the wethers were 18 years old by then.
The following winter in 1968 was also very hard. Snow fell continuously from late May until mid July meaning it never got below a foot deep. Further stock losses were incurred, especially in the replacement sheep.
A newspaper clipping shows Arthur with a merino ram sent over as a gift from a Victorian breeder in a cardboard box!
Farming Practices
Arthur did not believe in selling any young sheep and did not sell his older sheep until they were downgraded and were frequently 10 years old.
Some of his stud ewes were still clipping good fleece at 15 years of age. It satisfied him that fleeces from 20 stud ewes all over 10 years of age that he had given away took first and second prizes in the fleece competition at the Mayfield show. This was despite the fact they were running down country.
He put the ram to all the ewes older than two shear and carried a fair number of ewes in comparison to the number of wethers because of the low lambing percentages. This allowed him to breed sufficient stock for replacements.
While the main Erewhon ewe flock was shorn in October, the dry ewes and wethers went out to the high basins in the spring. They were mustered in off these areas about mid-December and shorn, beginning about the second week in January. They returned to the basins at the end of January or beginning of February. The hoggets ran on the better country and were shorn in mid January before going out on the wether country.
Arthur regarded this spelling of the basins as vital to allow the grasses to get away in the brief fast-growing period so that they could run to seed. Subsequently the stock helped to spread this seed and build up the fertility of the areas. Where stock were run consistently from the time that the snow cleared away through the summer, these grasses never had a chance to seed and regenerate.
Showing Success
Arthur had considerable success in the show ring in the late 1950s and early 1960s. He regularly exhibited champion sheep at the Christchurch show and in 1957 scooped the pool.
In 1963 he was invited to judge across the Tasman at the Ballarat Sheep Show Society’s show—one of the first New Zealanders to judge in Australia.
In 1979 Arthur sold Erewhon and Mount Potts to his sons Colin and Alisdair respectively. This allowed him to focus almost entirely on the tourism activities which he loved because he was such a people person. Sadly this friendly likeable man and one of New Zealand’s best-known high country men died in 1981 aged just 62.
-- By Robin Major
>> Click here to read about Freda's life at Erewhon.
