Arawa Heads Aotea In South Canterbury Trials

Press, Volume C, Issue 29488, 14 April 1961, Page 18

Arawa Heads Aotea In South Canterbury Trials

In Department of Agriculture trial! in South Canterbury, Aotea has been falling behind Arawa In yield. Mr Colin McLeod, farm advisory officer of the department in Timaru, told farmers at the Waimate farm conference this week that they should give Aotea another chance this year, but If it fell down again on the grounds of economics they would hsve to swing back to Arawa. Though in eight years of trials from 1950 Aotea and Arawa had averaged about the same, Mr McLeod said in the last two years in South Canterbury Arawa had outyielded Aotea—by six bushels last year and then 12 bushels in the most recent season. It was not known whether this trend in yields of Aotea indicated that it was following Cross 7 in exhibiting some weakness, but Aotea seemed to be very susceptible

to mildew and in his opinion it was this that was causing it to tall short. Mr McLeod said that mil-dew-resistant Cross 7 had yielded 18 bushels better than ordinary Cross 7, but the mildew-resistant line had rather weak straw. Little Gain In autumn sown manurial trials where lewt and 2cwt had been applied there had been less than a bushel increase in yields over controls but in one spring-sown trial the advantage had been 10 bushels. Spring wheat had a shorter growing season, he said. The result of rate of sowing trials was that use of If bushels of Aotea and two bushels of Arawa was recommended for autumn sowing with half a bushel more of each in the spring when plants had less time to tiller. The reason for recommending a heavier rate of Arawa was that the seed was larger than that of Aotea. If too much seed was sown incidence of mildew could be increased. This had happened where more than two bushels of Aotea had been used. It had resulted in more mildew and a reduced yield. Extra Rate In view of the prevalence of sprouted wheat this year, Mr McLeod said sowing of an extra half bushel over that recommended was probably desirable. Where a grazing trial had been conducted, Mr McLeod said it had reduced the incidence of mildew on Aotea. but the grazing and mildew reduced the yield by two bushels. With Arawa the yield increased by two to three bushels under grazing.