Impressed By Intensity Of Stocking

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32303, 22 May 1970, Page 6

Impressed By Intensity Of Stocking

“I had never realised how intensively you could stock pastures. You have to see the animals on the ground to understand what it all means,” commented Professor E. K. Woodford, director of the Grassland Research Institute at Hurley, in Bedfordshire, England, speaking about pasture lands he had seen in the North Island before coming to this week’s conference of the New Zealand Grassland Association. Professor Woodford said that a fantastic sight for him had been mob stocking with 250 sheep to the acre for 24 hours near Palmerston North. People from Britain, he said, could only be envious of a situation where there was intensive grazing of pastures, particularly those treated with phosphate, and where there was a rapid turnover of nitrogen in the organic matter. Still, he said, he had been impressed by the fact that the environment was not always ideal for grass growing. In some areas; such as mudstone soils in the North Island which tended to slip after heavy rains, he had thought that trees might be preferable to pasture.

But, he added, he had been only a few days in the country and was certainly not in a position to tell New Zealanders what they should do. Professor Woodford said that one of the biggest thrills on his visit had been to dine with Sir Bruce Levy, who, in spite of his advancing years, was still a tremendous personality. He seemed to have worked out the basic principles about the way to grow grass in this country and consequently must have had a tremendous influence on New Zealand agriculture.

Questioned about the possible role of artificial nitro-1 gen in New Zealand grassland farming, Professor I Woodford said that nitrogen ] was the major plant nutrient I in grasslands and productive capacity was lineally related to the amount of nitrogen applied or available. No-one had shown him the I response curve to nitrogen in New Zealand grasslands,! but he was sure that someone must have done this] work. Certainly someone should' work out in economic and biological terms what it would mean to use nitrogen out of the bag. He did not believe that this had been done yet. Artificial nitrogen could conceivably come into competition in intensive land use systems with clover, and much research was needed to measure the response from artificial nitrogen in the presence and absence of clover. A lot of work also needed to be done on the form of nitrogen to be applied that would also preserve clover in the pasture, for where clover could produce 400 units of nitrogen a year it was certainly desirable that it should be permitted to persist in the pasture. In a diverse career in] research Dr Woodford has J been associated with the tea i industry in India, cereals in' Canada, has been in charge] of a research station con-; cerned with herbicides, and' for the last five years has] been in charge of the grass-, land research institute at Hurley.