Experiment With Wheat Sown Into Pastures

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

Experiment With Wheat Sown Into Pastures

JS it possible to grow a worthwhile crop of wheat with no more cultivation than the simple introduction of,the seed into a grass and clover paddock? An answer to this question is being sought in an interesting experiment on a four-acre paddock on the property of Mr C. A. Jamieson, Leadleys road, Halswell, this season. The experiment is being undertaken by the farm advisory division of the Department of Agriculture under the supervision of Mr D. J. G. Davies, a fields instructor. Clover Dominant Before the wheat was introduced the paddock was red and white clover dominant. It was grazed up until the end of May and on June 1 Aotea was introduced at two bushels to the acre on about three quarters of an acre using six different manurial treatments repeated six times with the fertiliser being sown with the grain in the department’s nine-coulter drill fitted with the roiling disc coulter. This arrangement is like a miniature skeeth and makes a narrow cut about half an inch wide. The treatments included applications of Icwt of calcium ammonium nitrate (nitrogen), Icwt of the same, Icwt. of superphosphate, icwt of calcium ammonium nitrate and Icwt of super, a combination of Icwt of each and untreated controls. On the balance of the four acres the same weight of seed was sown with Icwt of super and half a bushel of short rotation ryegrass. The same drill was used but it was fitted with the Powell groover points with two skidding knife edges which make a wider semi-cultivated groove which required subsequent harrowing to cover the seed.

About six weeks after the wheat was sown the whole paddock had to be sprayed with D.D.T. emulsion to counter porina, which were chewing into the clover and threatened the wheat. On the fertiliser trial there has up to now been no obvious reponse but a tendency for the nitrogen treated areas to show slightly more vigorous growth of wheat, and incidentally of grass and clover, is now showing up.

It is a characteristic of the area as a whole, and particularly where grass as well as cereal was introduced, , that there is strong grass and clover competition and it is intended to shortly spray half of the fertiliser trial area with a suitable hormone to suppress the clover for a while to allow the wheat to forge ahead.

Part of the area—a Jittle more than an acre—has been grazed to check on utilisation by sheep and to study subsequent recovery of particularly the cereal. One hundred ewes and lambs had been on the area for about a week by early last week. There was still a fair bite of feed left then and the lambs looked to be doing extremely well. The ungrazed .part of the paddock outside the fertiliser trial may be used to test other hormone weedkillers for clover suppression. Study The trial will also allow a study to be made of the root development of the wheat Under the two methods of introduction, and at this stage tillering appears to be stronger, as would be expected, in the semi-cultivated grooves. It is' hoped to carry this study through to a measurement of yields under the two systems. Mr Jamieson, in commending the department for its enterprise in putting thiS procedure to the test to determine Whether or not it has a place in farming practice, said that even if the wheat did not produce a worth-while grain crop he was of the opinion that the extra feed produced by the wheat would have paid for the seed and its introduction, with some to spare.

Mr Davies said that until the procedure had been proved worth-while It was' hardly possible to talk about its possible applications, but if successful it might have a place on heavier land where it was wished to grow a crop of Wheat but ground conditions were too wet for ordinary cultivation, and also possibly for taking down the fertility of a clover-dominant sward.