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Story: Social sciences

Yearly farm work at Littledene

Season Month Sheep farming Cropping Dairying Women's work
Spring August Lambing Spring ploughing;

Spring sowing wheat;

Drilling oats for green feed
Milking house cows Tending orphan lambs, etc.
September
October Daily milking of whole dairy herd





Women often attend to daily separating and on some farms butter-making
Work for Xmas bazaars
Summer November Mustering for tailing Drilling rape, turnips and grass seed Lunches for musterers
December Mustering and shearing Cooking meals for shearers; lunches and meals for harvesters
January Wheat and oat harvest
Autumn February Weaning;

Ewe and lamb fairs
Ploughing
March Drilling autumn oats and wheat
April Period of most leisure; adult classes, dances, card parties, etc.
Winter May Winter muster;

Bring sheep to lower levels
Winter ploughing as weather permits Milking house cows
June
July

This table, adapted from the book Littledene (1938), shows the yearly round of work for farming families. Crawford and Gwen Somerset studied the community of Oxford in North Canterbury, where they both worked at a local school. Their study, in which they called Oxford 'Littledene', found that, despite heavy workloads, the rural people who lived there still found time to be involved in a wide range of groups.

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How to cite this page

Peter Clayworth, Social sciences – Early 20th century, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/en/table/45768/yearly-farm-work-at-littledene (accessed 24 June 2026).

Story by Peter Clayworth, published 18 June 2014, updated 1 June 2015.