Farmers Also Introduce Cereals Into Pastures

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28938, 4 July 1959, Page 8

Farmers Also Introduce Cereals Into Pastures

By next spring very much more information will have been accumulated about the feasibility of introducing cereals into pastures to give extra winter feed and it is hoped also spring feed Apart from the trials being carried out on town milk supply farms near Christchurch by the Department of Agriculture, individual farmers have also been experimenting on the same lines with what look to be reasonably promising results. A farmer near Amberley has sown a wide variety of cereais into 175 acres of his 25d-acre farm. His aim has been to provide mid and late winter feed for his 1200 ewes and their lambs. It is his practice to start lambing about June 20 and to complete the main lambing by the end of July. By Christchurch show time last year he had more than 900 lambs away fat.

Among his introductions with the disc drill are Wong barley, Algerian, Russet and Winter grey oats, ryecorn and malting barley.

Little Super

In the main he has used no superphosphate though it has occasionally been tried on an experimental basis. Results to date, however, indicate, according to the farmer, that on all but the most fertile land the sowing of a small amount of nitrogen with the seed would be most beneficial, especially with the later sowing when the soil temperature has dropped and the fixation of nitrogen by the clovers has ceased. Seeding rates have not been high ranging mainly from about three-quarters to one and a half bushels. Other trial work has indicated that higher rates may be preferable—from two to three bushels. Sowing began as early as February and continued up till mid May and in fact ryecorn was drilled into a small lucerne paddock only a few days ago. Included in the later sowings were S 17 oats (a variety developed by the Crop Research Division) and also Arawa wheat, both of which are showing considerable promise. On one paddock after harvesting a crop of Research barley the sheep were turned on to the stubble for a few days and then some of the harvested seed was re-drilled back into the stubble without further cultivation and an excellent paddock of green feed resulted.

Substantial Contribution

Commenting on this work about three weeks ago this farmer said that sowing of oats, barley and ryecorn in the early autumn had already made substantial contributions, to the paaturesjMnd later sowings of the same varieties had come through well and had continued to make growth even under the cold weather experienced a few weeks ago. Only last week he repotted that the cereals were still going well. Where they had been introduced into a run-out lucerne paddock and had been grazed off a considerable amount of recovery had been noted, particularly with the Wong barley, and where cereals introduced into a 25-acre ryegrass white clover paddock had been expected to carry about 1100 ewes for about two hours a day during June, there was still about a quarter of the paddock not fed off.

One of the reasons for attempting to grow cereals in the existing pastures was to try to find orle which would continue to grow throughout the winter when the permanent pasture grasses were dormant and would also give rapid growth in the early spring. The sowings in March had already established the fact that cereals overdrilled into ryegrass white Clover pastures on reason-

ably fertile land would not only strike satisfactorily, but would compete with the existing grasses and would add quite a considerable contribution to the feed available for winter use.

Already he said that considerable differences had been noted in the performances of cereals, the most significant being the ability of the more Upright growth varieties to withstand competition from the grasses and clovers, whereas the more prostrate forms appeared to have difficulty to hold their ground in competition with rapidly growing grasses and other pasture species. It was possible, however, that the slower growing, more prostrate forms of cereals might prove their worth in April and May sowings, when the competition from the pasture was considerably reduced with the colder weather.

The drought conditions and the severe over-grazing of most Canterbury pastures this year had provided particularly favourable conditions for these introductions, but the exceptionally rapid recovery of the grasses with prolific growth during March had meant that the introduced cereals had had to contend with severe competition. Another farmer on hill country in the Tai Tapu district who had 14 acres of rolling country disc drilled with two bushels of Russet oats and icwt of super about March 25 is so satisfied with the results already evident that he is planning to have 50 or 60 acres done next year. When seen two or three weeks ago this area was carrying oats up to 18 inches high, and it was estimated that the oats might be contributing 20 to 30 per cent, of the growth. Certainly there was very much more growth on this paddock than on an adjoining paddock, and this was on country that could not have been cultivated.