GRASS FARMING IN BRITAIN

Press, Volume LXXXVII, Issue 26605, 15 December 1951, Page 3

GRASS FARMING IN BRITAIN

VERY HIGH OUTPUT AN ACRE

ADDRESS BY NUFFIELD SCHOLAR (From Our Own Reporter) , TIMARU, December 14. .."y and large I was impressed with the efficiency of British agriculture. Their output per man is not nearly as high as ours, but their output, acre I s much, much higher,” said Mr C. Hi lg e ndor f, a Nuffield scholar who has just recently returned i Britain, in an -address on grasslands farming in Britain to the executive of South Canterbury Federated farmers this afternoon. “There is an amazingly large proportion of fertile land in Britain,” Mto Mr Hilgendorf. “I had looked upon Britain as an industrial country with some agricultural land scattered between the towns, but that is not so. There was a good deal of permanent grass in Britain before the war, but there is much less now. But what is left is quite good. I know many pastures in Britain which are producing 3001 b of meat an acre." The British pasture was not the classical ryegrasS-white clover pasture known in New Zealand, said Mr Hilgendorf. “Although, I am compelled to admit, that to compare their leys with our leys, there is not much difference. On the farms of larmers who are interested in grass some of their leys are very good indeed. There has never been as much concentration on ryegrass in England as there is he . r x e -. J V . is restricted to areas which suit it fairly well, but the very best pastures I saw were all 523 ryegrass.” Meadow fescue and timothy, a mixture much favoured by British farmers, would be one which should do well in New Zealand, said Mr Hilgendorf. He had seen it all over England doing very wells indeed. British farmers heavily fertilised their pastures, and he felt that for out of season and other special purposes nitrogen could have considerable use in New Zealand.

Britain was now growing much more cocksfoot than iormerly and doing it much more efficiently than New Zealand, said Mr Hilgendorf. Farmers there had- realised that they- were getting high prices and were not afraid to spend money on their pastures—much less afraid than New Zealand farmers seemed to be. “Our long term prospects for certified ryegrass are not particularly good, but our long term market for white clover is pretty good.” A disadvantage in New Zealand grassland farming was that a set rotation, such as the Norfolk four-course rotation used in Britain, had never been adopted. Methods here were much more casual. With good farmers this policy was successful, but poor farmers got very disappointing re 7 suits. “A more flexible rotation than the Norfolk four-course rotation would possibly be an advantage, but there is definitely a need in New Zealand for some sort of fixed rotation.”