SEED IN PELTS

Press, Volume CI, Issue 29994, 1 December 1962, Page 7

SEED IN PELTS

Storksbill

Damage

Many lamb pelts have been damaged this season by storksbill seed. The seed drives directly into the pelt and leaves a tiny puncture. A representative of a freezing company said this week that they had been surprised to get ao many seedy pelts so early in the season. Normally pelts were damaged latgr on by barley grass and speargrass. The harmful effect of storksbill this season appears to be due to the growthy season followed by a dry period early in the spring which caused the plant to go to seed. The company spokesman said that while no farmer was suffering Individually as a result of the seed damage to pelts, the incidence of seedy pelts in the South Island was a factor that had to be taken into account when fixing the schedule. Seedy pelts are discounted to the extent of about Is 6d each which is 27 to 28 per cent of their value.

Mr L. J. Matthews, in “Chemical Methods of Weed Control,” says that storksbill is a hardy annual common in waste places and open pastures in both islands. In waste areas it is most effectively killed by emulsifiable esters of 2,4-'D at rates up to 11b. In poor pastures it is killed by salts and amines of 2,4-D and MCPA at rates up to 11b as seedlings. Where it occurs in lucerne and clover seed crops it shows sufficient susceptibility to the phenoxybutyrics to be controlled by 2,4-DB at rates up to lib Boz in lucerne and white clover and MCPB at the same rates in red clover seed crops.