Maize Undersown With Lucerne

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30058, 16 February 1963, Page 6

Maize Undersown With Lucerne

TTNDERSOWING bqrley and pea crops with lucerne has been practised for many years, but sowing lucerne under a cover crop of maize is a recent and a profitable innovation which can boost summer milk production on dairy farms. Mr D. J. Davies, instructor in agriculture, of the Department of Agriculture, Chrietchurch, said this week that the combination of maize and lucerne when harvested as summer greenfeed provided a balanced diet for milk production from the high carbohydrate maize and the high protein lucerne. After the maize had been harvested the lucerne came away and the farmer had an established lucerne stand.

Three one-acre plots were sown on the Halswell farm of Mr R. Caesar on October 16, November 2 and November 18 last year. The maize Wisconsin 575. at 40 to 501 b an acre was' sown two or three inches deep and the land was then re-drilled at a shallower depth with lime pelletited, inoculated lucerne at 101 b to the acre. Two hundredweight of superphosphate was sown with the maize and one hundredweight of reverted superphosphate with the lucerne.

In the first sowing there was bad infestation with weeds, particularly wild turnip, and the whole paddock was subsequently sprayed with 2, 4 DB which checked the weeds in the second and third sowing blocks but was too late for control to the first. As a result the maize to the first sowing did not mature as well as expected. The November 2 sowing was the moot successful for lucerne establishment. The third sowing was made too deep on uneven ground and this gave a patchy strike but the rest of the lucerne to this block established well.

The crop is very heavy and is giving some trouble to harvesting. Some of the maize is more than 9ft high and still growing. The lucerne is growing well and is up to 2ft high among the maize stalks. Mr Caesar has been feeding the cut material to his

milking herd tor the last three weeks and the 26 cows have been receiving three tons of chopped feed in two feeds a day. They have been cleaning it up well and when given an opportunity to eat grass have preferred the

maize-lucerne mixture. Mr Caesar has fed maize to his cows to previous years but this is the first year he has increased his summer milk production substantially. In the areas where the maize has been harvested the lucerne has already recovered well and there is no weed problem. A cut of hay is expected in the autumn and depending on the weather there should be some growth after this. On the third block where it is a little paitchy, Mr Caesar proposes to re-sow some lucerne if it is necessary. With the cows feeding from the three acres, the balance of the 50-acre farm has been ttiut up for more hay and his hay crop this year should be bigger than ever before. Mr Davies said that the cost of the lucerne-maize planting had been about £5 10s an acre. Lighter sowing rates of ipaize would have been warranted as in places it was thick and the lucerne had tended to be weak. The maize had trapped the moisture and held it for the lucerne as well as protecting the young plants from dessication and wilting in hot weather. Being tall, the maize had created competition for light and this had made the lucerne grow taller and more vigorously. An estimate made this week put the yield of maize and lucerne together at 41.4 tons to the acre, including 40.8 tons of maize and 0.6 tons of young lucerne.