GRASSLAND MEETING AT BLENHEIM

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29952, 13 October 1962, Page 7

GRASSLAND MEETING AT BLENHEIM

The twenty-fourth annual conference of the New Zealand Grassland Association will be held at Blenheim from October 30 to November 1.

The conference will begin on familiar lines with a discussion of Marlborough soils by Mr H. S. Gibbs, senior pedologist oi the Soil Bureau, and Mr C. E. Vucetich, a pedologist of tire bureau in Christchurch, and of farming in the district by Mr J. P. Beggs, local farm advisory officer of the Department of Agriculture.

Subsequent papers on the opening day will include one by Mr T. E. Ludecke, scientific officer of the Department of Agriculture, Alexandra, on formulation of a rational fertiliser programme in tussock country, and another by Mr W. R. Lobb, superintendent of the Winchmore Irrigation research station, on some recent investigations on phosphorus and sulphur fertilisation in Canterbury. In a paper on the impact of aerial topdressing on a Marlborough hill-country farm, Mr E. Scherp, of HlUersden. Blenheim, will show how sheep numbers have been more than doubled and wool weights trebled on a hill-country property of 1740 acres, mainly in the last 10 years as a result of complete hill-country topdresstng. Dr. J. W. McLean, of Lincoln College. . will discuss some of the results obtained from a study of the growth and health of weaned lambs grazing plots of pure stands of white clover, lucerne, timothy, short rotation ryegrass, and perennial ryegrass.

The annual meeting of the association will be held on the evening of the opening day. A field day will include visits to the solar salt works at Grassmere and farms with the idea of demonstrating the use of prairie grass, new strain of ryegrass and lucerne seed production. In the Blenheim, Spring Creek, and Kaituna areas special attention will be given to hill-country Improve, ment. cowgrass seed production, and lucerne growing. Speakers on the final day will be Mr W. F. Leonard, senior scientific officer of the Department of Agriculture, Christchurch, on problems of scrub control; Mr R. Inch, instructor tn agriculture in Nelson, on an experiment in the control of fern at Tutakl, Murchison; Mr E. A. Madden, farm advisory officer (agrostology) of the department in Palmerston North, on the influence of cattle on pasture competition and second growth control; Mr F. L. Ward, field officer of the Meat and

Wool Boards’ economic service in Christchurch, on beef cattle and sheep on hill-country farms; Professor A. H. Flay, of Lincoln College, on the place of lucerne in dry- land farming; Mr T. P. Palmer, of the Crop Research Division of the D.5.1.R., on lucerne varieties; Mr G. A. Avery, of Grassrnere. on lucerne seed production; Mr Beggs, on growth inhibition in some Marlborough soils; Dr. J. N. Parle, of the Rukuhia soil research station, on the establishment of lucerne in pumice soil; Mr W. A. Jacques, of Massey College, on Yorkshire fog as a pasture grass; and Mr R. W. Moody, a farm advisory officer of the Department of Agriculture at Rotorua, on magnesium deficiency in pastures.