GRASSLAND STUDY

Dominion, Volume 26, Issue 104, 26 January 1933, Page 10

GRASSLAND STUDY

Scientific Research Aids Dominion Farming

AN EXPERT’S REVIEW

Grassland farming in New Zealand has been so based on scientific research that the progress, good as it has been in the past, will be insignificant in comparison with what the future lias in store, according to Mr. A. H. Cockayne, assistant-director of the Department of Agriculture, who delivered a lecture on the subject to members of the New Zealand Institute of Horticulture last evening.

Mr. Cockayne said that at the present time there were in New Zealand nearly 18 million acres of sown grassland, of which 13 or 14 million acres were ■jriginally forest, scrub, and fern, the rest being derived from swamp and tussock. On that area were produced each year over 80 million tons of grass, which in turn was elaborated into 300,000 tons of meat, 120,000 tons of butter, 100,000 tons of cheese, and over 100.000 tons of wool, say, 600.000 tons of food and clothing, or some 30 or 401 b of saleable material per acre. Importance of Grassland. It had to be admitted that the products derived from grassland represented very wasteful elaboration, or, in other words, livestock were very inefficient machines to convert raw materials into human necessities. Even with the most efficient, the cow, 4 tons of nutritive dry matter were required to elaborate 3001 b of butterfat, and one felt that sooner or later the food and clothing of the world represented by animal products would be derived in a more .direct way than at the present time, but until that time came about grassland would have to play its part and play it in the most efficient way that science could direct, and so far as New Zealand was concerned the present small figure of 401 b per acre stood in need of enlargement. One reason why the figure was small was that the grass crop was the most variable one the farmer had varying in herbage production from not more than 2 cwt per year to over 20 tons per year; or, to put it another way, from a carrying capacity of a fifth of a sheep to over a cow to the acre. When one considered that the average production in saleable material had only, reached an average of 401 b, the possibilities ahead of grassland development were apparent, particularly in the light of modern knowledge, not yet by any means been fully put into application. “It is sal(l,” continued Mr. Cockayne, “that a visitor to one of the English universities, struck with the green velvety appearance of the lawns, asked how they were managed. The answer was ‘We mow them and roll them for hundreds and hundreds of years.’ The answer, however, was only a half one, and it should have been added: ‘We put half an inch of a soil top-dressing each year, and water them whenever necessary.’ ” “Just as strain building is essential in the garden, so it is with regard to grassland, and in New Zealand we are well along the road to success’,” said Mr. Cockayne. “Special strains of permanently leafy ryegrass, cocksfoot and white clover are being rapidly developed, and perhaps more important than rtheir mere production is the fact that the system of crop certification adopted by the Government is rapidly translating them into the grassland practice of tiie country. This year over 22,000 acres of perennial ryegrass is being certified by the Government. With special strains of clovers and grasses and the adoption of management factors based on scientific research there is no reason why our 401bs. of saleable products per acre from grasslands should not be doubled within a few years and then again redoubled. , Where New Zealand Leads. “In certain aspects in grassland fanning New Zealand is by no means the most backward of countries. She leads all others in the production of grass, ensilage and its recognition as a pruning factor leading to stability of milk-producing pasture. She leads all others in the top-dressing of grassland . with superphosphate. She leads all others in the use of sodium chlorate in grassland weed destruction. She leads all others in her desire to establish permanently young milk producing pastures and by no means’least she leads all others in the acreage of Government certified pedigree grassseed. “She stands almost last in tiie list with regard to the amount of hay saved and the amount of supplementary crops grown per 100 acres of sown grassland, and she stands quite near the bottom in | the amount of the people’s money that she spends on grassland research. What she has spent to date is already returning many fold. Problems A-plenty Awaiting. “There are grassland problems in plenty awaiting investigation, and their solution looks tb be good business, and ample provision for their solution appears reasonable. “In conclusion,” said Mr. Cockayne, “I again want to emphasise that grassland farming is essentially horticultural In its outlook and future grassland research should tend to have a more horticultural bias than it has had in the past. “Pedigree strain building problems, pruning problems, feeding problems, cultivation problems and watering problems are all horticultural ones. True it is that the term ‘grassland farming.’ first used by me some 25 years ago to dignify a type of soil utilisation then rather despised, has come into its own and raised the plane of the art. It. would not be amiss if tiie term were altered to ‘grassland gardening.’ ”