FARMING OVERSEAS

Press, Volume LXXXIX, Issue 27035, 9 May 1953, Page 5

FARMING OVERSEAS

J Skilled Grassland Management AN OXFORDSHIRE PROPERTY [Bu H. STVDHOIMt} x (VID Above Reading the broad Thames valley narrows almost into a gorge where it is pinched in between the southern end of the Chiltern hills, and the northern shoulders of the Berkshire Downs. Above there, toward Oxford, it opShs out again into flat to gently rolling country where some cf the best farming in Britain is carried on. It is not usually regarded as being among the particularly favoured areas of Britain, because much of the soil is by British standards medium to light; but perhaps because of this, that part of Oxfordshire displays an average level of-farming not bettered anywhere in England. No part of England has in fuller measure the mature beauty of the English countryside. The flat meadows along the quiet Thames and the gentle rolling country back further are exhibited against the sometimes harsh background of the Chilterns and the downs. Over the whole landscape are sprinkled ancient towns and villages, and trees are everywhere.

Alongside Drayton St. Leonard, near Stadhampton, in the heart of this lovely country, is the 1200-acre farm of Mr J. B. Farrant. Bright Farrant would be embarrassed if anyone told him it was a show place, but it is farmed so competently and it is so well maintained that few British properties can excel it either in appearance or production. It is particularly interesting to a New Zealander because grass is given a place of importance much above the English average, and managed with as great skill as can be found anywhere in New Zealand.

The farm is on flat to very gently rolling land. The soil is a light loam over gravel, well drained for the most part, but giving way here and there to pockets of heavy loamy clay. Rainfall is about 23 inches a year, well distributed as it usually is in England, but with always the possibility of a drought in summer that will check grass growth. Three weeks of fine hot weather will begin to make a serious difference.

Roughly half the farm is in grass, which ig left down four years. Four years under grain; grain roots and grain follow, then grass again undersown on the last grain crop. The main undertaking is a large dairy herd, but grain, sugar beet, potatoes, peas, beef, lamb, mutton, wool, and pig meat are also produced. The dairy cattle are high-producing dual purpose Shorthorns, and the milking herd numbers 143 head. Steer calves are kept and either fattened or sold as steers at 2} years, and when the feed position is good, cattle may be bought in for fattening. In May last year the farm was carrying about 450 head of cattle all told. The cows were full-bodied, deep cattle, the best sort of Shorthorn.

A ewe flock of 200 is kept, folded on grass or on crops. They are Cluns, which are crossed with a Hampshire ram, and produce about 250 lambs for sale fat each year.. Some of the ewe flock is put to a Clun ram for replacements.

Half in Grass Last year, the area in grass totalled about 500 acres, The crops were 50 acres of sugar beet, of which the tops were used for food and the roots sold to the factory; 20 acres of potatoes for sale: 50 acres of cbou moellier, 10 acres of mangels, 6 acres of. fodder beet for the pigs, 10 acres of swedes for the sheep in the dead of winter; and about 500 acres of wheat, barley, and oats. The wheat and barley, which is malting grade, is all sold off, but the oats are used for stock feeding on the place. Wheat yields average about 48 bushels, and barley about the same. The standard grass mixture is 41b of 5.23 ryegrass, 41b of New Zealand certified perennial, 41b of Irish perennial to cut down the cost of the mixture, 51b of cocksfoot, 41b of timothy, 21b of broad red clover, and 21b of S.lOO white. All the grass gets 2cwt of nitrogen, 3c wt of 18 per cent, super, and 1 to IJcwt of muriate of potash in March, which is in time to meet the new spring growth, and about May, when it has been eaten off, it gets another 2cwt of nitrogen to see it through the summer and autumn. Some use has been made of lucerne, but Italian ryegrass is being tried as a substitute. The lucerne runs out in about four years, but the Italian is tremendously productive when it is given an extra 3 to 4cwt of nitrogen efore the end of April. About 1000 tons of silage are made from 120 acres of new grass each year. Silage is the mainstay of the milking herd throughout the winter, and grass is its sole diet throughout the six months of summer. In the winter some concentrates are fed as well as 401 b of silage. A somewhat unusual feature is that dry cattle are wintered outside. They may get a little silage. Growing young cattle will grow well on it, and grown cattle will improve slightly in condition. As the water table is high, it is impossible to make silage in pits, a system which Mr Farrant favours greatly. He dislikes the alternative of concrete walls because he finds losses from rain damage too high, so makes his silage in clamps. He is always uneasy while silage is being put up into clamps because of the danger of tractors falling off the clamp, and in the interests of safety does a lot of footslogging to consolidate the silage. Grazing is controlled with electric fences. The dairy herd naturally gets the pick of the grass, with followers and folded sheep coming after. Control is not as intensive as it is on a few of the most advanced New Zealand grassland farms, but is exceedingly efficient. The cows are on grass alone from some time in April, until September. In some years it i» possible to graze on into the middle of October, but in a wet season cows close to calving are taken off grass, or fed’ a supplement, because iti those conditions something appears to be lacking in the grass in late autumn, and October calving cows may suffer a check if left on

Magnificent Pasture Pastures on the farm were possibly the best the writer saw in England. They were good from the start, but the three-year and four-year stands were really superb, and the best possible tribute to Mr Farrant’s skill as a grassland manager. They were clean, well balanced, robust- and vigorous, and could not be excelled for production by the best commercial pastures in the best grassland districts in New Zealand. The rotation requires that these magnificent pastures be ploughed out at the end of four years. No doubt the excellent cropping record of the farm is due in large measure to such good, well-grazed grass being -turned back into the. soil.

Strip grazing with an electric fence is of course a recent innovation on the farm, but Mr Farrant is fully convinced of its benefits. A record he is proud of was made last spring. A stripgrazed paddock of 5J acres carried 60 milking cows for 17 days, and in that time produced £35 worth of milk to the acre. Those figures tell a whole story of first-grade farming. The sheep flock management is typical of sheep management on English arable farms. It seems to a New Zealander a laborious way to manage sheep, but it is the usual way. The Clun ewes are a deservedly popular breed for crossing with fat lamb sires. They are generously framed, grand mothers, and very heavy milkers. This flock averages about 6ilb of down type wool, which was worth last year 4s 6d per lb. and the year before 6s. under the British wool control scheme. The flock is. folded on grass during the summer, and in the winter gets what grass there is as well as some rape sown on partial fallows, sugar beet tops, and swedes. In some winters there may be a succession of frosts of up to 20 degrees, and swedes may become a difficult problem. The folding involve* moving a fairly S Heated system of netting and e yards about the farm, and the dismantling and re-erection of these yards is the principal occupation of the shepherd who is with the flock full time. He has to have a certain amount of assistance With the sheep work. In these conditions, the ewes are usually able to do four lambs before they have to be culled and sold off fat because their teeth have gone. The lambs are wintered on the place, and sold at

eight or nine months when they dress out at 651 b to 701 b. In that part of England fly is very bad .and the sheep have to be dipped five times a year. Mr Farrant was incidentally very impressed with the spray dip brought back to Britain by Mr John Rowsell, who came to New Zealand as a Nuffield Scholar a few years ago. Obviously this farm is a very big undertaking. The manure bill aloqe is about £3OOO a year. The farm employs 40 men, and the wages bill runs at about £2OO a week. Gross income at present high prices is about £40,000 a year, to which milk returns contribute about £16,000, and sales of arable crops about £lO,OOO. Sales of fat and store steers and old cows and dry heifers, which are about £5OOO, and sales of lambs and cull ewes at about £2500 are other principal items on the revenue side. The amount of equipment required for a property so intensively farmed is tremendous. The dairy alone represents an investment of many thousands of pounds. There are 12 wheeled tractors, and few of them spend much time in the shed. An expensive item, but a necessity on all English grain-produc-ing farms these days, is a grain drier. The farm has been in the hands of the Farrant family for many years and the present occuoier considers that it is fully developed and producing about to the maximum. It represents a huge capital investment. Stock alone must be worth, on current values, about £30.000. This is an established farm, and has been for many years, but Mr Farrant says that a good deal of possible new development of farms in Britain is held up because, with taxation high, the rewards are so modest on investment in land that British farming suffers from a perennial shortage of capital. That is a circumstance not unknown to New Zealand farmers In many ways, this was the outstanding farm among those the writer looked over in England. It was run on strictly commercial lines by a man who is; farming for a living, yet on every side there were abundant signs that here was land, crop, and livestock responding generously to skilled and understanding husbandry.