SUMMER FALLOW ON HEAVY LAND

Press, Volume LXXXV, Issue 25769, 2 April 1949, Page 5

SUMMER FALLOW ON HEAVY LAND

Gleaning Weedy Paddocks

KAIAPOI FARMER’S EXPERIENCE

So much of our light land is infested by twitch that to ensure good establishment of autumn-sown pasture a summer fallow is almost essential. Throughout Canterbury most farmers appreciate this fact and on the poorer soil types, a summer fallow is now almost standard practice. The man on good land is slower to change from the old style of sowing down directly after a cash crop. Much of our better land is well supplied with plant food and for that reason fallowing is frejquently looked upon as a waste of time and money. It is true that numerous instances can be given of first-class pasture establishment directly after the harvesting of a white crop, but in dry seasons, or on weedinfested areas, the chance of success is not so bright. There are few hard and fast rules in farming, but it is seldom that the summer fallow will not pay a handsome dividend. In dry seasons, soil moisture can be retained by suitable cultivation during the dry summer months, whereas land dries out rapidly if ploughed and worked in the autumn directly after a cash crop. Small seeds sown in a dry seed bed germinate latp in the season and the resultant young plants are readily lifted by later frosts.

Becaus.e of a protracted cropping programme without due attention to weed control, plants such as fathen, Californian thistle, and docks have spread rapidly, and weed growth now presents, a major problem on much of the best in Canterbury. Where this problem exists, a summer fallow is certainly the most reliable answer. Perhaps the well-to-do farmer can afford to take a chance and may sometimes get away with haphazard methods. The man who is not well established would be foolish to gamble, and generally 10 acres of fallowed land will produce as much winter feed as will double that area sown directly after a white crop. The writer recently visited a farmer on heavy land who is quite convinced that summer fallowing is still the only practicable method of cleaning the land of serious weeds. The farm is on a heavy silt loam in the Kaiapoi district and the paddock concerned was heavily infested with docks. Deep ploughing was carried out in the winter of 1946 after a greenfeed crop of oats and rape for dairy cows. The area was later crossploughed twice and worked with a clod crusher* before being grubbed 10 times. During the grubbing 38 lorry loads of docks were carted off and burned before the preparation of the seed bed was completed with harrows and roller.

In February, 1947, the area was sown in the following mixture: 101 b certified Italian ryegrass, 101 b certified perennial ryegrass, 41b certified cowgrass, 41b certified Timothy, 31b certified white clover. One ton of lime was broadcast before the final cultivation and the seed mixture was sown with 3cwt of super to the acre. The pasture established well and carried a lot of stock in its first season. This season it was grazed until mid-October and then closed for a hay crop, which produced three tons of first-class hay to the acre. The aftermath was then allowed to come away for a red clover seed crop, which will be ready to cut about the end of this month.

Since sowing down, no weeds have been hand pulled and there are now about a dozen dock plants to each acre. These will be removed this week, and with suitable management from now on, the area should give no further trouble.

' Certainly costs have been high, but these have been more than met by the provision of good grazing and a heavy yield of hay, apart altogether from the clover seed crop which is still to come. Estimating seed yields of red clover crops is a chancey business because so much can take place in that last few weeks, but unless something extraordinary happens, this paddock should yield two bags of machine dressed seed to the acre. Because it is late to mature, harvesting of the red clover seed crop is often compliated by the weather. This crop will je harvested with the header if the vveather is favourable. Otherwise it will be stacked and threshed during he winter.