BRITISH MILK DELEGATION

Press, Volume LXXXVIII, Issue 26869, 23 October 1952, Page 8

BRITISH MILK DELEGATION

VISIT TO LINCOLN COLLEGE FARMING PROBLEMS SAID ' TO BE SIMILAR ■ < Members of the delegation from the , Milk Marketing Board of England and Wales -Who are spending about seven i weeks in New Zealand to study the dairy industry, yesterday visited Can- • terbury Agricultural College, Lincoln.; Afterwards, the vice-chairman of the i board (Mr W. R. Trehane) said that the visit to the college had been of 1 particular interest’" to the delegation* as the problems being faced there were < not very different from those they had in Britain. Mr Trehane said that, in its search for information in New Zealand, the delegation had, in assessing to what extent New Zealand practices could be applied in Britain, at all times to consider what differences could arise through variations in climate. The climate,at Lincoln approximated more to conditions in Britain than did other places in New Zealand. There were the two problems of summer drought which retarded growth, and the “dead” winter Season, with little or no growth, which at Lincoln was longer than in some other parts of New Zealand, though not so long as in Britain. Because of these similarities, they thought that practices followed at Lincoln could be of considerable use in Britain, Mr Trehane said. The pastures they had seen at Lincoln were similar to those in Britain, though a more limited variety of grasses was Familiar Grasses It had been interesting to see grasses such as cocksfoot and Timothy, with which they were very familiar, being used, and to compare their performNex Y 2£ aland conditions, Mr Trehane said. They had all been J he work done with Phalans, and he thought it might call for a fresh examination to see whether Po£s S in Ü B^° r “ d Speciai pur - ! inco , t^ or ate into their prac- , tices the results of agricultural re- : Mr T rehane s a> d he thought ■ P°J ltlon was similar in both 1 t£>n nt K le ( S—there was a shnilar grada- ' etween progressive and not so . progressive farmers. gr?«ive ld m t M t oS n %^? y in which pro--1 was where Seem to spread wag wnere a farmer or grouo farmers in a district were progres?e V em y to'lSS? „“ Ne w Zealand S seem to look over the hpHon what their neighbours are dling ’ thos e at Home,” he’s’aM Mr Trehane farms 600 acres in » ? are Mr’j"^" 5 Of delegation ! Mr W A S i? I S rey ’ Staffordshire, 5 and Dr t' o £. North Wales. '3, .• f: Edwards, chief of the nro- > duction division of the board. pr ° Dried Grass as Fodder i S^rJh£> rrey ’< w J? ose dairy farm in 1 described as one of J? ® ®°S .("tensjvely-farmed propert ties m Britain, is a leading exponent e U? practice that has t t s ai . ne considerably in popularity in 1 M? R i "„ the ,aSt «’e P six ye.™ » In 1936 there were about 20 grass- ’ mn inr i: P ar ”? : J° da , V the number ts s 650. Some of the plants are operated farmera '° peratjve b<,SiS by grou P s

Mr Morrey said that a great advantage of grass drying was that the grass lost only 5 or 10 per cent, of "“JpeH? * n 'he process, compared with a loss of 30 per cent, or more in silage. Dried grass was also lighter to teed out to stock than silage.

On his 260-acre property, Mr Morrey strictly controls grazing so that the maximum amount of grass is conserved when pastures are at their best. The grass is cut when it is at the young leafy stage, and put through the drying plant. Hot air is passed over • the grass by

electrically-driven fans. After drying, the graes is baled. . . Mr Morrey has his grass analy*® for protein content to ensure that nw stock receive a balanced ration. U se “ for winter feeding, dried grass a!on« gave a milk yield of up to gallons a cow, he said, and up to 800 gallons an acre had been obtained from grass, with heav. applications of fertilisers and nifr o ;*®* Mr Morrev said a factor again* dryina was the initial cost His plant had cost about £5OOO. a present-dav values, the cost would r* about £lOOO more. Mr Morrey has 80 milking cows a total herd of more than 200 P®® gree Ayrshires. .. . Dr. Edwards is one of four dnecto of Ben Challum. Ltd., a farming co*, nany with 50,000 acres in Perthshire, Scotland, on which tne is a stud of 12.000 black-fare ewj and 300 cross Shorthorn High la cattle. The project was one oi oioneer attempts to bring back n* land grasses that had deteriorated w using cattle alongside sheep. jMr Tutton, who farms 400 acr^ ft u North Wales, run? 120 Friesian c»v‘ and 300 sheep. He also dries P Lg for fodder, but he is one of abouj farmers using a communal of olant. His country is the Montgomery red clover. small seeds, he grows wheat cereals for stock feed. t The delegation will visit three (farms today.