Uncertainty On Frost Damage To Crops

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30916, 24 November 1965, Page 6

Uncertainty On Frost Damage To Crops

There is an air of uncertainty about the degree of damage done to farm crops by frosts which have followed the recent wintry weather, with snow down to low levels. The frosts have been severe enough to blacken home vegetable gardens in inland districts.

The general manager of the Wheat Committee, Mr L. C. Dunshea, said that no inquiries had been received about claims for compensation from the wheatgrowers’ compensation fund.

In the period from 1942 to 1965, he said. £33.625 was paid out on 252 claims for frost damage to 6166 acres of wheat.

Farmers and Department of Agriculture officers say that wheat crops have seldom looked better at this time of the year than they have been looking recently. There is apparently, however, some mildew in crops. Mr L. G. Copp, senior cereal breeder at the Crop Research Division of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, and Mr R. A. Milne, senior farm advisory officer in the Department of Agriculture in Rangiora both said that frost damage in wheat was hard to detect immediately afterwards. Mr Milne said it was difficult to see until flowering was finished and it showed up in an absence of grain formation. Damage at Flowering Mr Copp said that frost damage at flowering resulted in the anthers being killed and the female part of the plant not being pollinated, so that no seed or grain was formed. However, he said, it

took from a week to 10 days for an ear to complete flowering and in these circumstances light frosts affected only part of an ear. It took a particularly heavy frost to affect the whole of an ear. A four or five degree frost was sufficient to cause the sterility of some flowers, he said. Concern was felt this season, he said, as crops were running about a week to 10 days later than usual and it was possible that a frost, which sometimes caused damage to crops about show time, could do as much damage this season if it came now.

Questioned about the effect of a frost of seven or eight degrees reported to have been experienced in one North Canterbury district, Mr Copp said that crops in that area were usually sown early and for this reason they might have been sufficiently advanced to have escaped damage. Methven Snowfall A farmer in the Methven district, where it froze last week after a snowfall, said that wheat and peas would not be far enough advanced to suffer, but he had doubts about a chou moellier crop which had just finished flowering. Mr Milne said that earlier in the season there had been some damage from frost in chou moellier crops in North Canterbury. Ryegrass seed crops were not yet far enough advanced for damage to be apparent, he said. 'These were just starting to shoot up and would come into flower at the end of the month or the beginning of next month.

Maize was a crop that might be caught, he said, but he had not heard of damage. Farmers in some districts have also had to contend with hail. A strip of country in the Waikari district and Scargill valley was hit by a hail storm a little more than a week ago. Mr Milne said that oats, wheat, barley and some young brassica crops had been damaged. A farmer in this district said that frost had followed the storm but it was not certain yet whether it had caused damage in addition to the hail. Further frost has been felt since.

Mr N. H. Greaves, an instructor in agriculture in the Department of Agriculture in Timaru, said that there could have been some damage in chou moellier crops in South Canterbury. Wheat crops, he thought, would not have been far enough advanced to be harmed but they were coming into flower now and more frosts were not wanted. Frost on Saturday morning blackened odd leaves of potato plants in Timaru and vegetable gardens inland at Pleasant Point were reported to have been blackened. A veterinarian in the Ashburton district said that in spite of a lack of sunshine lambs seemed to be doing well in that district. But two or three weeks of sunshine would be welcomed. There had been only occasional losses of sheep after shearing, he said, as most people had- not been able to get a full day of shearing in at a time and the result had beei that sheep had been able to get out and get a fill of feed before nightfall.