Posted 8 Oct 07

My name is Diane Sage, I am a PhD student at University of Canterbury. My PhD

research on 'The role of native biodiversity shelter in reducing lamb

mortality on hill and high country farms' is supported by a PhD scholarship

from Meat & Wool NZ.



I am currently selecting 16 hill country properties on which to undertake my

research and I have been very lucky to have Dave Lucock from The Agribusiness

group help me find some suitable and willing farms from his ARGOS group.

However we still need another 10 hill country farms to add to my study group

and Dave has suggested getting in contact with you all to see if you could

help me in this selection process.



Please find below a brief outline of my project and an outline of my

requirements for study farms.



Many thanks for your time and support,

Kind regards

Diane Sage









Specific objectives/aims of the project

This thesis will explore the role of shelter for both biodiversity

conservation and enhancing lambing success in New Zealand hill and high

country farms. Specifically this thesis will focus on the following questions:



(1)What native biodiversity occurs in lambing blocks across a range of hill

and high country farms, and how is it spatially arranged and how does the

native biodiversity in lambing blocks contribute to overall biodiversity, at

the local and regional scale?



(2)How do lambing ewes and their lambs utilise native biodiversity as shelter

under different weather conditions?



(3)Does the presence of native biodiversity reduce lamb mortality?



(4)How can farm management practices be enhanced to promote both biodiversity

conservation and to reduce lamb mortality?





To answer these questions the specific objectives of this thesis include:

(1)Quantification of the spatial attributes of native biodiversity in lambing

blocks across a range of hill and high country farms. This will involve

quantifying the native biodiversity attributes of different lambing blocks and

relating these attributes with the management history and the farmer’s

knowledge of lambing success in each block, and an assessment of the

biodiversity value within the landscape.



(2)Determination of the habitat preferences of ewes and lambs within these

heterogeneous landscapes under different weather conditions at two scales of

measurement. Firstly, a large scale study using GPS collars on mothering ewes

in diverse lambing blocks during different weather events, and secondly,

smaller scale observations of ewe and lamb behaviour during lambing during

different weather events.



(3)Evaluation of microclimates produced by various native shelters and small

scale experimentation on the effects of native biodiversity as shelter in

reducing lamb mortality.



(4)Development of recommendations on how farmers can adapt their current

management practices to enhance both native biodiversity and lambing success.





Property Selection

The first part of the project involves selecting eight high country and 16

hill country properties to undertake the research on. Property selection will

be based on four criteria:



1. A need to cover a representative range of native biodiversity present in

lambing blocks on the hill and high country properties.

2. The willingness of the land owner/manager to freely participate in the

project.

3. Sheep farming with lambing an important component of the economic return to

the property.

4. Relative ease of access to and around the property.



This selection process will be followed by a visit to each of these properties

by myself and discussions with the farmer about the project followed by a

ground inspection of at least part of each property. All 24 properties will

include Stage(1) of rese