HIGHLY FERTILE FARM

Press, Volume LXXXIV, Issue 25579, 21 August 1948, Page 5

HIGHLY FERTILE FARM

South Canterbury Property MR E. BRUCE LEVY GIVES HIS COMMENTS About 400 farmers who during the Timaru farm school went to the demonstration on Mr F. R. Clark’s farm at the Levels had a highly profitable morning. They went over a farm which is a fine example of the possibilities of the modern, high-grade pasture seeds, and in addition heard the comments of Mr E. Bruce Levy, director of the Grasslands Division, and a world authority on pastures. The farm is of 360 acres, of which about 300 acres are easy clay downs, and 60 acres flat, alongside the TimaruPleasant Point road. The rainfall of the district is about 23 inches a year, and very dry summers are usual. When the present owner took it over, the farm was in a low state. Over-cropping to provide cash income, and feed for the 350 awes carried had progressively lowered fertility until the wheat yield was down to 20 bushels. Pastures were short lived, and a lot of cultivation was necessary. Improvements had fallen into disrepair, and thfe whole picture was of a farm which was in a progressively declining state of thrift. Tfle present owner set out to bring the farm back about 10 years ago, and in that time has transformed it into one of the show places of Canterbury. His financial resources were slim, but he had unlimited energy, and .used to the full three advantages that were offering—the new pasture plants, the Downland water supply scheme, and irrigation. The policy of the farm was to use the high prices then obtainable for small seeds to provide money to pay for development. The Downland scheme removed the pressing worry of water for the heavier stocking necessary with good seed and liberal liming and top-dress-ing. and the 60 irrigable acres made seeds crops more certain. The farm to-day is in a state of fertility that is almost embarrassing. Small seeds have continued to offer an attractive market, but the fertility of the farm is such that growth,.is too vigorous to be ideal for small seed crops. A constant worry is how to deal with the growth which for that scil and climate is exceptional. Big Ewe Flock The - farm at present carries 800 breeding ewes and about 260 hoggets, as the policy* is td dispose of surplus ewes while they are still young. Up to 2000 sheep have to be carried for periods of two to three weeks at times to cope with the grqwth, and this means a lot of additional planning and work. The farm usually has areas of white clover, Montgomery red clover, perennial, and Italian ryegrass for seed, beside 35 acres or so of wheat, and land in fallow or in a fodder crop. Mr W. C. Stafford, of the Timaru office of the Department of Agriculture, who has kept a close watch on developments on the farm, outlined the steps that had been taken to reach the present high efficiency of the farm. The objective, he said, was to raise fertility to a point at which the farm could efficiently do the job natural to Canterbury farms, the production of wool, meat, and .grain. ‘‘You can’t cash fertility through the grazing animal in Canterbury as you can in areas blessed with a higher rainfall,” he said. ‘‘Therefore fertility must always be cashed through grain.” The policy of the farm was never to allow pastures to grow old, nor the stock to grow old, but to ensure that young, vigorous pastures were eaten by young vigorous stock. The objective was to achieve a balance among the relationachieve a balance of the relationships of sheep, grass and crop. The normal rotation of old grass, then a fodder crop, and then a grain crop and grass after a fallow, could not always be adhered to because of grassgrub, said Mr Stafford, but nothing was done that would take too much out of the ground and jeopardise the chances of the pasture. Fertility was not at such a point that it might be possible to cut out the fallow, and go straight into grass after wheat. The visitors walked over a number of paddocks, all of them with a recent history of high production, and of these, two were singled out later for comment by Mr Levy. One was a paddock of perennial ryegrass two years old which gave 46 bushels of machine dressed seed to the acre last year, and on the day of the inspection was carrying a lot of feed. The other was a paddock of Italian, sown with Montgomery clover in March this year, which was carrying a tremendous bulk of feed.

Nitrogen Efficiency Mr Levy said that the outstanding feature of the farm was the nitrogen efficiency of the place, which was the basis of all soil fertility and successful cropping. The grass all showed the vigour of youth, which was unquestionably a great feature of grassland production. “The enormous production of the young pastures, and the rapid deterioration after the second or third year are outstanding,” said Mr Levy. “The young grass is so good .that it shows up over-much to the detriment of the older pastures. Seed production has probably played a fair part in this early deterioration, but you should be getting better growth from second and third year pastures than you are getting at present.” Mr Levy said that the two ryegrass pastures were beyond the stage where they should have been grazed. “We must get away from the idea that young grass has to be nursed,” he said. “It should be eaten. That’s what it is therd for. * When you see dead growth in the bottom of a pasture, it indicates unpalatable feed, and shows that the time for feeding is overdue.” One point was that perennial rye-grass-white clover pastures on the farm seemed to him to be out of proportion to the young Italian and Hl type of pasture on the farm, he said. That might be a result of the call for perennial and white clover seed, but he would like to see much more of the Italian or Hl type of pasture with Montgomery clover being fed to stock. The subdivision of the farm was splendid, he thought, but if more could be done, so much to the good. For the efficient use of the new pasture grasses, it was necessary to put on 100 to 120 sheep to the acre for two or three days, and then move them. Efficiency demanded several paddocks in .the same crop, say four small paddocks of Hl rather than one larger one.

Mr Levy said he was somewhat puzzled at the large amounts of lime used. Theoretically it should not be necessary to use large amounts of lime on a farm on which a PH of 8 was fairly general.