Management Study

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30058, 16 February 1963, Page 7

Management Study

Trials to study the effects of oversowing, topdressing, and grazing on the establishment of briar seedlings and on the growth of seedlings and bushes below about 2ft high are being conducted by the Department of Agriculture on the property of Mr. J. R. Skurr, in the Cardrona Valley, in Central Otago. The trials were begun by Mr. A. A. Duncan, now of the Dominion Fertilisers Company,- when he was farm advisory officer of the department at Alexandra, and he discussed the trials with runholders and others attending a high-country field day in the Wanaka district last month.

A trial area of 290 acres, which has been oversown and topdressed, has been divided into two blocks. The first will be grazed as a runholder normally handles topdressed country, largely ignoring briar control, and on the second modified mobstocking will be used to attack the briar, even though this grazing system ma. affect the clovers.

The area, which run: from 1600 to 2300 ft, provides a full range of aspects on steep, rolling, ridgy country. To record the effects of the treatments belt transects one yard wide have been laid out from the bottom to the top. Briar plants will be counted individually within these areas and on some plots detailed measurements will be made of height, size, age and disease over a period of years. These plots will be installed on both the experimental areas and untopdressed areas adjoining. Mr. Duncan emphasised that this was a long-term trial and quick results could not be expected.