Pasture Species Under Observation

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30633, 26 December 1964, Page 8

Pasture Species Under Observation

While no-one would suggest that pasture species should be grown pure in pastures, apart perhaps from lucerne for sheep, trials throughout the South Island in which pure species have been kept under observation the year round under grazing are proving invaluable in indicating the seasonal preferences of stock and the seasonal, as well as over-all production, of the species.

These trials are indicating the sort of combinations of grasses that will provide a year-round spread of production, and what is most important feed that stock like.

Mr H. W. Mclntosh, consulting officer of the New Zealand Dairy Production and Marketing Board, has six of these trials running on farms from Canterbury to Nightcaps in Southland. In Canterbury Mr D. J. G. Davies, a farm advisory officer of the Department of Agriculture, is collaborating with Mr Mclntosh in this work. One of these trials is on the town milk supply farm of Mr L. O. Wheeler in the LincolnSpringston district. There are nine individual pasture species growing in the trial area which is 18 chains long by 100 yards wide, as well as a mixture. The individual species are perennial (Ruanui) Ariki, short rotation (Manawa), Italian ryegrass, Western Wolths, timothy, grasslands cocksfoot, Welsh tall fescue and a mixture of cocksfoot, timothy, tall fescue and prairie grass. These species were sown in March of last year following the application of a ton of lime to the acre. All species and the mixture were sown with IJcwt of D.D.T. superphosphate and 31b of white clover, and except for strips of nitrolime and ammophos they have not had fertiliser since.

The pattern of this trial is similar to that of others throughout the island on which Mr Mclntosh is working.

One of the main aims of these trials is to determine what species will perform best in the critical summer period when feed is often short, and on Mr Wheeler’s property, where about £2OOO has been invested in spray irrigation, the species which will give the best return under irrigation are also being sought. At present the trial is being strip grazed across the various species after a spell of about three weeks and it is possible to observe both the preference for feed of the cows and the recovery of the various species following the earlier grazing. Ah outstanding performer in the trials has been Welsh Tall fescue. In Mr Wheeler’s paddock it has been a little

slow in starting, possibly due to the initial low fertility conditions, but is now starting to show up, and Mr Mclntosh says that in all other trials throughout the island, including that at Nightcaps, it has been the highest producer. Mr Mclntosh expects a lot more to be heard of this grass. Mr Davies said a feature of it was that it seemed to be able to grow under all conditions. Mr Mclntosh said that it seemed to grow steadily denser in the sward and in trials it had been growing denser ever after five years. It seemed to be able to keep out foreign grasses. It did not seem to have the same rest period as other grasses and was the equal of short rotaion ryegrass in the winter, though its main growing period was the spring and summer. Along with cocksfoot it was also very drought resistant, and on the basis of Mr Wheeler’s trial at present the cattle also like it. Treatment

The tall fescue seed which has been used has been contaminated with Italian and this has made some contribution to growth in the early stages.

In the late February-March period Mr Davies said it needed fairly harsh treatment to prevent it becoming too clumpy and it could then be either hard grazed or cut with a forage harvester.

Mr Wheeler is a keen admirer of the grasslands cockfoot. The cows have also been grazing it well lately and its recovery after grazing has been notable. The cows also like timothy but Mr Mclntosh says that it seems to grow better south of Dunedin.

Prairie grass is now having a rest period but Mr Mcln-

tosh notes that it has been quite good through the spring and with its spread of growth fits in well with other species to provide a continuity of feed.

Of all the ryegrasses, Mr Mclntosh said that short rotation was still the best. In the trial at Springston it also had been well grazed. The complaint against it was of course that it soon went out of the sward but it could be reintroduced fairly easily and quickly. Good Grass Italian too was still one of the good grasses and it had made quite a lot of growth in the winter, but short rotation had done as well as far as growth and quantity of feed was concerned in the Springston trial. Mr Mclntosh said he preferred Italian to oats for greenfeed in that it provided more growth and was more palatable and would respond to a hundredweight of nitrogen fertiliser in the spring to provide a hay crop. At Springston, Italian had given considerably more production than Western Wolths, which disappeared from the pasture after only about nine months.

The other ryegrasses have not come out of these trials too well. Mr Mclntosh noted that both perennial and new Ariki were being neglected at present by Mr Wheeler’s cows. Perennial was out of favour as it had poor payability and poor summer growth. Ariki had a little more production but seemed to be just as unpalatable. Short rotation seemed to remain palatable longer and was palatable to stock earlier in the autumn. Poor grasses had also intended to invade the perennial and Ariki swards at Springston. The mixture of cocksfoot, timothy tall fescue and prairie has also been well grazed down and Mr Mclntosh pointed out that the erect growing character of tall fescue, cocksfoot, timothy and prairie grass compared with the low tiller-

ing of the ryegrasses meant that there was less wastage of feed and a better balance with clover in that there was better light penetration and less suppression.

Across all species in the trial a strip was sown with perennial at a heavy rate of a bushel to the acre and the effect is marked in that there is hardly any timothy and very little cocksfoot left. Mr Mclntosh said the effect was ironically that the better summer growing species had been suppressed by a species that was a poor summer grower.

At the initial sowing down of the species strips were treated with superphosphate

dressings at 2cwt, 4cwt, 6cwt and Bcwt to the acre. It is still easy to see the effects of these heavier dressings indicating a continuing residual effect, but beyond the 4cwt dressing the extra super has not visibly increased the bulk of growth. The evidence is, however, that there is something to be said for a heavy initial dressing. Last autumn strips of nitroline were sown at icwt and 2cwt to the acre and these gave a short term boost to growth indicating that this fertiliser could be usefully employed to get quick extra growth where it was required. Discussing the over-all results of this trial, in particular relating to the require-

ments of a dairy farm, Mr. Davis said that in these comparisons of individual species it had been clearly shown that in general grasslands cocksfoot, tall fescue, prairie grass and timothy had outshone the other grasses. For individual locations, Mr Davies and Mr Mclntosh mentioned the following grasses as providing suitable combinations:

Dry situation: grasslands cocksfoot, tall fescue, prairie grass and short rotation ryegrass.

Wet situation: tall fescue, timothy, short rotation and possibly a little cocksfoot, and Mr Davies also mentioned crested dogstail as a possibility.

Intermediate situation: tall fescue, grasslands cocksfoot, timothy, short rotation and possibly a little prairieMr Mclntosh emphasised that the importance of these combinations was that no matter the variation in topography or soil type within a paddock, the effect would be that one of the species represented in the mixture would prosper.