BEST PASTURE MIXTURE

Press, Volume XCIV, Issue 28158, 22 December 1956, Page 9

BEST PASTURE MIXTURE

RESULT OF ' ENGLISH

EXPERIENCE TIMOTHY, MEADOW FESCUE AND CLOVER Discussing British grassland farming in a paper prepared for the conference of the New Zealand Grassland Association, the New Zealander, Professor M. M. Cooper, who is Dean of the Faculty of Agriculture at Durham University, said that Mr Rex Paterson on his Hampshire farms had found that his best performing leys were based on timothy, meadow fescue and white clover. This was a fairly typical result with good grassland farmers, he said.

‘‘The two grass species dovetail well together . in respect of establishment and manner of growth. The meadow fescue gives the earliest growth, while the timothy gives leafy growth in late May and June when other species are going to head. It is a very palatable combination, and palatability is one of the essentials of a high producing sward. Two useful additions to the above mixture are short rotation ryegrass and Montgomery red clover. It is unwise to include more than 61b to 71b of short rotation ryegrass. for it will smother the slow establishing timothy and meadow fescue. but at the following rates of seeding a good balance can be established: 5-71 b short rotation ryegrass. 7-1 lb 5215 meadow fescue, 5-61 b S4B imothy, 3lb certified Montgomery red clover, lib Kent white clover, and 11b SlOO or New Zealand white clover, making a total of 22-271 b an acre Low Rate of Seeding ‘‘This rate of seeding is low by New Zealand standards, but it is ample for establishing a .good sward provided seed bed conditions are good. The availability of leafy certified strains to replace the stemmy commercial types, which are still too widely sown for the good of British grassland, has made it possible to effect considerable economics in seeding rates.

“The inclusion of two strains of white clover may seem strange in New Zealand eyes, but work at Wye College has shown that Kent white clover is more persistent under hard grazing conditions, due to its very prostrate growth habit, and it is a better summer producer than either SlOO or New Zealand white clover, which give better spring and autumn production. The two strains give greater flexibility to the mixture to meet the variety of conditions imposed by season and by grazing with sheep as well as cattle.

‘‘S4B timothy, to my mind, is the outstanding product of the plant breeding station at Aberystwyth, with SlOO a good second. The Aberystwyth ryegrasses, however, have their weaknesses. 524 runs to head very early in the season, while 523, which is undoubtedly *very leafy, is too late in starting growth and is not very palatable. It tillers well, but it must be managed carefully to maintain the. balance of clover. Many farmers with considerable justification prefer a genuine old pasture strain of ryegrass such as Kent certified. New Zealand perennial in Britain tends to behave rather like 524 in making head too quickly and thereby losing quality. Short rotation ryegrass, on the other hand, remains leafy for a longer period and would be a very valuable grass in Britain if it could be relied on to persist. We are living in hopes that the new short rotation will be better in this repect, for ryegrass, despite the popularity of other species, is still the staff of life in grassland farming.”