Bag Nitrogen For Grass Favoured In U.K.

Press, Volume XCIX, Issue 29336, 15 October 1960, Page 9

Bag Nitrogen For Grass Favoured In U.K.

Wlliww guuuiu MW JUHUgOi come from to grow gram—from nitrogen fixation by clover or out of the bag? This was one of the main controversial issues at the Eighth International Grass* lands Congress held at Heading in England, Mr C. E. Iversen, reader in agronomy at Canterbury Agricultural College, who returned to the college this week after spending four and a half months overseas during which he attended the congress, said that one of the most controversial sessions of the congress was the symposium on nitrogen fertilisers and grassland production. For some years now there had been differing philophies on grassland production—on the one hand the New Zealand one of dependence on nitrogen fixation by clover and on the other hand the Dutch philosophy dependent on bag nitrogen—with the British compromising somewhere between the two. In 1856, Professor T. W. Walker, former head of the soil science department at Lincoln who is shortly returning to that post, had introduced a controversial note at the Seventh Congress held in New Zealand by showing that nitrogen applications of up to 6 to Bcwt to the acre achieved no increase in total production on the grass clover sward although the season of production might be slightly modified. This had been followed up in a number of overseas centres with complete confirmation of Professor Walker’s findings. Controversy The controversy at the most recent congress had been between the New Zealand viewpoint put forward very ably by Dr. Peter Sears, Director of the Grasslands Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and the new British viewpoint expressed by Mr J. Q. Grten, of

i the British Grasslands Research , ■ Institute. British research institutes add i ! leading farmers were now fol- I I lowing the Dutch idea of almost 1 ■ complete dependence on big nitro- < ! gen where high producing grass- ■ lands were required for products t like town milk. The best grass for . uptake of this nitrogen was Italian , ryegrass and a necessary adjunct . was irrigation. Some of the lead- . ing farmers were applying IS to I 20cwt of nitrolime to the acre ■ annually to Italian ryegrass which I was left down for three years, j This was applied in dressings of > about 4cwt per grazing or cut r By means of the electric fence . and the new silage machinery . almost complete utilisation was , obtained. j “While I personally prefer to , see a good grass clover sward I ; have.to admit that some of these , farmers are producing the best . grass I have ever seen,” said Mr Iversen. A few were trying to carry the process a stage further by .zero grazing or cutting and 5 carting the grass to their stock. ’ The application of this sort of * thing to New Zealand was govr

emed by the price factor, he said, t Farm products returned consider- t ably more to the fanner in England than in New Zealand, thanks J to subsidies, and costs in many 1 cases were very much lower. For f example, the critical cost in the . high nitrogen application system t was the nitrolime which at about j £ll a ton Was only about a third << of its cost in New Zealand. Mr Iversen said that even more important, however, was the * mental attitude of the farmers J who were carrying out these'de- * velopments. It was, < he said, * reminiscent of the phase of de- I velopment in New Zealand farm- c ing following the high prices of the early 1850’s. With plenty of I money to spend the leading Bri- I tish farmers were probing and 1 examining any new development c which could lead tg higher pro- 4 duction and for a research worker S a visit to them was a very stimu- s lating experience. < “It is fairly obvious that the i British farmer is going to become ( an increasing competitor t with the New Zealand farmer and f in the search for new markets we r can only wish our producer , I

boards well," ha said. “However, the world needs more cheap and good quality food of the type that New'Zealand produces, but unfortunately at a fairly low price, and I believe that it behoves us to help- in this direction by lowering our costs by higher production." The Californian legume seed growers were some of the wealthiest tanners anywhere in .the world and they had done this by selling their seeds at low prices and keeping their costs dowq with tremendous yields. Fifty-three countries had sent 800 delegates to the international grasslands meeting this year. There had never been a meeting of its size before. There had been 40 delegates from Russia, 15 from Spain, and so on. “We have told a good grassland story but these countries are now chasing after us. “If what I have said appears slightly critical of New Zealand farming may I say that I met a number of farmers who have visited this country and who, using ideas gained here, have inrrpaspd in manv nronc

creased production in many areas of Britain. The New Zealand farmer and New Zealand farming systems are mentioned with a certain ’ amount of . reverence wherever farming discussions take pla£e.”