LUCERNE SEED STAND

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 29070, 5 December 1959, Page 8

LUCERNE SEED STAND

Notable Recovery From Flood

One of the original contract seed areas for certified lucerne, a 14-acre paddock which was sown on December 14, 1945, on the property of Mr H. Kendall of Irwell is still producing hay and seed. Since last year the property has been farmed by Mr Kendall's son, Mr R. H. Kendall, but the lucerne still goes on.

It has been the practice to take two cuts of hay each year before : shutting the area up for seed from early to mid-December. One of the remarkable aspects '• of this stand is that it was flooded ,by the Selwyn river in April. ; 1951, and was written off by the Department of Agriculture. However the area was not ploughed and in the following spring when the rubbish was baled from the paddock Mr Kendall noticed that some lucerne had survived. He therefore did not plough the area and in the following year the lucerne continued to increase in spite of competition from couch, cocksfoot, prairie grass and creeping bent and by 1954 it was again producing as ; well as ever. Never Sprayed At no stage has the area been sprayed for weeds. It is at the moment rather a thin stand but as a number of seedlings struck last autumn and this spring there are prospects that it will continue as well as ever. Certainly the department is not likely to write off the area again until it is finally ploughed. Year by year details of seed production from this stand in pounds per acre of machine dressed seed are as follows: 1947, 531 b; 1948, 4101 b: 1949. 5601 b; 1950, 2901 b; 1951 and 1952, flooded: 1953, 41b; 1954, 1411 b; 1955, 3101 b; 1956, 3701 b; 1957, 1461 b: 1958, 411 b; and 1959, 461 b. For 10 years, apart from the years 1951 to 1953 inclusive, the yearly average yield was 2371 b of machine dressed seed to the acre. Mr P. R. Barrer, a farm advisory officer of the. Department of Agriculture, commenting on the results from this stand this week said that the yield of seed was better than the average for both the Ellesmere district and for the whole area between the Rakaia and Waimakariri rivers. Over the last six seasons the average yield per acre for certified crops in the Ellesmere district was 1301 b and for the district as a whole 1101 b, with the last three seasons being very poor production periods. Stands also generally did not last as long as on Mr Kendall’s property. In the main seed areas did not last for more than five or six years in certification and were ploughed up after seven or eight years and within 10 years.