IRRIGATION FARMING

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28104, 20 October 1956, Page 9

IRRIGATION FARMING

NEW POLICY AT WINCHMORE Emphasis On Meat Production BEEF CATTLE TRIALS INAUGURATED A new policy has been embarked upon at Winchmore by virtue of which practically the whole of the irrigation station has been given over to research. The dairy farm and the mixed farming area have both been discontinued as such. Milch cows and pigs no longer grace the establishment—the emphasis is now on beef qattle and research trials with sheep have been stepped up. All these changes may be said to be part of a long-range, progressive plan envisaged at the station and conditioned to a large extent by the development of irrigation on the Canterbury Plains.

For instance, the case for dairying on irrigated areas on typical light plains country under irrigation may well be said, after nine years of practical research, to have been proved in a marked degree. The results of

this decade of research are on permanent record and stand as a guide to those farmers on irrigated areas who may plan to go in for dairying. At the moment there are no farmers in the district going in for straight-out dairying under irrigation. A number, of course, run small dairy herds as part of their mixed farming projects. As a pointer to the possibilities of dairying on the class of country under irrigation in Mid-Canterbury, the returns for 1955-56. the final season, for the dairy herd at Winchmore, might well be quoted. In a season which was admittedly one of the driest on record, the factory returns from 83 cows denastured on the 150 acres, were 24.0871 b butterfat. In addition about £lO a cow was received from pigs, these being the progeny of the six breeding sows. Actually an average of 15 pigs was reared and sold from each sow in this last dairying year.

To secure this average of 3001 b butterfat a cow from this light plains country in a season of drought it was necessary to irrigate frequently, some paddocks receiving up to 10 arid 11 irrigations over the season. Thus, the whole 150 acres were treated to an average of 41 inches of irrigated water for the season from September to the end of April. Heavy Stocking Because of the growing interest in beef cattle, particularly on irrigated farms, and taking all other considerations into account, it was felt by the station authorities that a more useful purpose would now be served by devoting the dairying area primarily to meat production, with emphasis on beef. Accordingly the farm was recently divided into three blocks for trial areas. On one block breeding ewes alone for fat lamb production are being carried at the winter* stocking rate of six to the acre. On the second block three breeding ewes, plus half a cattle beast are being carried to the acre. The remaining block is given entirely over to cattle and it is being stocked at the rate of fully one beast to the acre. All Aberdeen Angus, the cattle went on to these trial blocks in August of this vear at the aee of about 10 months. When inspected by the writer last week they were thriving to such a degree as to suggest that it may be possible, as is hoped at the station, to dispose of some of them as chillers in April or Mav of next year. The breeding ewes on the trial blocks which now have quite a good percentage of lambs at foot also appear to be doing remarkably well and there is ample feed. They were selected for age in atmost equal numbers of two-tooths through to full-mouths and were lambed to Southdown rams.

It is pronosed in the first year, at any rate, to run each block on the former dairy farm as an all-grass proposition. Such supplementary feed as swedes, rape and the like will not be grown, although as much hay as possible will be saved. All livestock will be wintered on autumn-saved pasture and hay. Another interesting departure at the station is that the mixed farm of 350 acres has also been diverted from its original purpose. It will no longer be used as a mixed cropping and sheep farm During the recent winter months it was used to hold the beef

cattle and sheep pending their transfer to the former dairy farm when the trials started in August. Intensive Grazing Trial About 150 out of these 350 acres are brine diverted to an intensive grazing trial with sheep for fat lamb production. The objects are to find out how much irrigation water is used in a season, how much labour is required and Generally what problems are involved in running an intensively grazed sheep fafm on an area of that size. The balance of this block of 350 acres at the moment is being diverted to trials on automatic irrigation. It is worthy of note that last season this former mixed farm area returned a lambing of 116 per cent, a total of 1309 lambs being tailed from 1129 ewes. The average weight of the 885 drafted as fats was 33.71 b and the average, price a head £3 2s 6d. Of the remainder the ewe lambs were retained in the flock and there were seven carry-over lambs. The breeding flock averaged 101 b of wool a ewe and the 392 lambs shorn averaged 3.91 b

wool. The whole station has wintered well and everywhere one encounters an abundance of food on heavily grazed pastures. On the two intensive sheep grazing trials at present being carried out the perennial ryegrassrdominant block has a lambing percentage of 121 and the short rotation-dominant block a lambing percentage of 116. Main lambing commenced on August 18. and at the present time ewes and lambs are looking well, and a fair draft of lambs should be got away as soon as the works open. Last season the lambs grazing perennial ryegrass-dominant pastures averaged 311 b at the works and those grazing mainly on short rotation ryegrass 31.71 b. The difference in favour of the latter type of pasture was not as great as expected: but perhaps in a less favourable season for lamb fattening the difference may be more pronounced. An interesting feature of these two intensive grazing trials this vear is that on one of them the ewes and lambs are being rotationally grazed, whilst on the other they are being fat-stocked fall gates front one paddock to the other being left open, so that the sheep may range at will). It will be interesting to see which mob comes out on top.

‘•We have not been very happy with lucerne under irrigation.” said the officer m charge. Mr G K. McPherson, when showing the writer around. He went on to explain that the tendency on the class of country being irrigated

at Winchmore was for browntop in particular to come into the stand and smother the lucerne. He was of the opinion that this lack of success was primarily a fertility problem. To this end an experiment was under way in which yields from high and low applications of lime, superphosphate, and potash were being investigated. Another trial being carried out was designed to show the relative effects of boron, sulphur, copper, and molybdenum. At one time the wintering of ewes on the station was mostly done with turnips. In more recent years an acreage has been devoted each season to swedes. Last year this area is swedes was built up to 15 acres, as it had been found from experiments that swedes were a fairly reliable crop under irrigation. In a trial on the research unit it was found that two irrigations practically doubled the yield of swedes to a total of about 19 tons an acre—a fair crop for the Plains. Three additional irrigations, making five in all, did not. further increase yields to any appreciable extent. As for manures, the trials were carried out on an area on which the initial phosphate level was fairly low. The result was that one cwt of superphosphate increased the yield by about 50 per cent, and a further cwt by about another 35 per cent., making an overall increase of about 85 per cent. No responses were obtained from either sulphate of ammonia or muriate of potash. Best All-round Swede “As far as varieties are concerned,” explained Mr McPherson, “we have experimented at the station for several years now with all the more common kinds of swedes. Accordingly we have found that Calder (or “Dryland”) is the best all-round swede for our purpose. It is the least susceptible of any of the varieties we have grown to aphis attack.” During the year another barley irrigation trial was carried out at Winchmore and again the yields from irrigation of this crop were particularly good. The non-irrigated plot yielded 37.6 bushels to the acre, whilst a plot which received two irrigations yielded 55.1 bushels. Last season further rates of watering trials were carried out on the station. These mainly involved he comparison of a flow of 8 cusecs along a border with the same quantity (8 cusecs) split into four lots of two cusecs each. These trials indicated that the soil moisture level from ground level to 12in down was brought up to field capacity on the area covered by the flow, irrespective of the rate of flow used. The trials also tended to indicate that in the same time slightly more ground was irrigated by the smaller flow.

Preliminary trials were also carried out. using flows of half a cusec and quarter of a cusec, respectively, but as Mr McPherson pointed out. a lot more experimentation will have to be carried out in future seasons before any definite results can be quoted. Rounding off a very useful and informative year, it was found out to the station authorities’ satisfaction that red clover is a fairly safe crop to save for seed under irrigation, possibly a bit safer than white clo”er.