Lucerne on downlands

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33478, 8 March 1974, Page 9

Lucerne on downlands

Fifteen ewes to the hectare (six ewes to the acre) are carried on the Adair lucerne demonstration unit. This unit is a joint project of the Advisory Services Division of the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries and the Soil Conservation Division of the Ministry of Works, both of Timaru.

The unit, comprising 20 hectares, is situated on the Ministry of Works’s soil conservation farm, seven miles south of Timaru. It is subdivided into 24 main

paddocks along with three fenced gullies. The sunny slopes, 62 per cent of the area, arc sown in lucerne with the balance in permanent pasture. The area is typical of the downlands with easy rolling country, and a rainfall which averages 600 millimetres a year but varies widely. The soil type is a Claremont silt loam which has a compact sub-soil horizon and a soil structure that is naturally weak and damaged easily by heavy machinery and over-cropping. The farmlet was set up to demonstrate to farmers the superiorit” of lucerne as a grazing proposition and to show the type of management required for this type of enterprise.

Trial work on South Canterbury downlands comparing luterne production with conventional ryegrass pasture production over the past few years, ha. shown that lucerne in second and subsequent years after sowing heavily outyielded. pastures of th same age with differences being as high as 2:1. There are 80,000 hectares of low rainfall downlands in South Canterbury and

much of this area is held in small (100ha-140ha) units. Lucerne presents a means of increasing stock numbers and production, and hence incomes on properties which have otherwise limited means of further development. Cropping, which was necessitated by low prices for livestock products, has tended to decrease and this has led to a need for maximum production frbm grazing pastures. There have been several reasons why lucerne has not “caught on” in the

pcX&L. unc ui tuc mam icasons was tha many farmers imagined that there were problems in growing lucerne on the soils of the downlands, but we now know that if the standard recommendations, are followed lucerne can be grown extremely successfully. < In fact, each year sees a further increase in lucerne sowings and there is no doubt that the value of lucerne as a grazing proposition ip now becoming well recognised. Perhaps the factor which now acts as the biggest deterrent to growing it on a large scale is the management problems that are believed to be associated with its correct grazing. After one season’s experiences on the Adair demonstration unit

we' believe that these problems are- minimal. A rotational grazing system is used at Adair, except for six we< s in the winter when hay was fed out on four lucerne stands used as a wintering pad. There is no cultivation done on the property, because no winter' or greenfeed crops are grown, and the only tractor work is haymaking. Nine hundred and sixty bales of hay were

made in the 1972-73 season and 573 of these were used during the year, an average of 1.9 tales per ewe. A further 951 bales have been made this season so we have in our barns 1338 bales of lucerne hay. This is a reflection of the lucerne growth in two relatively dry seasons while carrying fifteen ewes to the hectare, a performance 50 per cent above the 10 ewe equivalents ’ which are carried by the average to good downlands farmer with conventional ryegrassbased pastures.

Six hectares of lucerne was shut up in the autumn and carried through successfully to early August, and then used as pre-lam-': bing greenfeed. Lambing started on September 1 with the mob being rotated around the grass paddocks and shed off as they lambed. Ewes and lambs re then transferred to a lucerne paddock. The lambing at 100 per cent was typical of the district. Because all the ■ ewes were mated to a Suffolk ram the total lamb crop will be sold as primes, and replacements will be bought in as two-tooths. A mass of information is becoming available from this unit and this will be disseminated to farmers at regular field days throughout the year. The future of lucerne on the downlands has exciting prospects.

The accompanying item on the lucerne demonstration unit on the Adair soil conservation farm in South Canterbury has been written by I. F. Warren, farm advisory officer with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Timaru, who is responsible for management decisions on the unit.