Travelling through the McKenzie country on a scorching summer’s day it was impossible to ignore the number of sheep in large paddocks with not a tree in sight. Vainly seeking protection from a scorching sun they were huddling around fence posts and even battens.

Franklin does not have such extremes of climate however, most of the district is exposed to winds particularly the cold, cutting south-westerlies in winter.

Consequently, even here, stock will make use of trees and hedges for shade and shelter if they are provided. Good shelter helps to prevent winter chilling and reduce weight loss.

Summer shade and shelter creates a comfort zone for stock and helps protect pasture.

Early European farmers in New Zealand imported prickly nasties for stock-proof hedging. These included gorse or furze (ulex europaeus), hawthorn or may (cratagus monogyna) from Europe, and barbery (berberis glaucocarpus) from the Himalaya as well as boxthorn (clycium ferocissimum) from South Africa.

Apart from the uncomfortable job of pruning these prolific seeders, they all became rampant invaders.

Other popular hedging imports, such as the two privets – tree privet (ligustrum lucidum) and Chinese privet (ligustrum sinense) – are both well-behaved as neatly clipped hedges in Europe but are rampant spreaders here. They also have an unpleasant side effect on humans – their flowering often causes respiratory allergies such as hayfever. As a result they have joined the extensive list of plant pests to be eradicted in many areas of New Zealand.

On the other hand, the non-suckering bamboo pseudosasa japonica has been a success. Some effective stock-sheltering bamboo hedges can be seen in the Otaua/Aka Aka area.

Introduced by local farmer S.P. Henry in the early 1900s, healthy bamboo hedges are still thriving despite salt-laden winds.

Leyland cypress and radiata pine also serve well as plant shelter belts, however, their enthusiasm for growing into big trees means they must be rigorously trimmed. Leylandii are unsuitable for hedging breeding stock as browsing can cause abortion.

There are many New Zealand native plants which are in tune with our climatic and soil conditions and can provide an attractive, functional shelter hedge, whilst also providing habitat for birds and insects.

Requirements are, firstly, adequate area – ideally a two-metre strip plus hardy fencing to prevent browsing by stock. The ‘gold standard’ fence is a full boundary fence with an electric strand attached about one metre up with an electric outrigger above the top of the fence.

Varieties can be “borrowed” from tried and true garden hedging favourites. All will require regular pruning to maintain shape, leaf density and vigour. The pittosporum family are all great although the karo-pittosporum crassifolium is the hardiest, thriving in tough coastal conditions.

Pittosporum eugenioides, or lemonwood, is an attractive wavy-leafed plant with a lemon scent. Dodonea viscosa or ake ake are tough and hardy mixing well with pittosporums.

The olearia tree of the daisy family is extremely hardy and will stand alone or mix well with the other shrubby species. The fine-leaved corokia is a fantastic replacement for box hedging in the garden and adapts well to harsher paddock conditions, combining well with flax.

The two flax species – phormium tenax, (tall coastal variety) and phormium cookianum, (lower-growing mountain flax) can both make a dense, if rather woolly, stock shelter. Canny Southland farmers use flax hedges to protect their lambing ewes and Peninsula dairy cows make good use of flax hedges in winter storms.

A great, lower-maintenance option, which provides year-round interest, is a mixture of smaller growing natives such as hebes, coprosmas, flaxes.

Using both flax species will extend the flowering season when combined with pittosporums, ake akes and taller-growing cabbage trees, pohutakawa, rewarewa and totara.

Establishing a good hedge takes time and effort but livestock will thank you for it.