PROGRESS WITH PASTURES

Dominion, Volume 29, Issue 223, 17 June 1936, Page 19

PROGRESS WITH PASTURES

Interesting Phases Revealed by Research Work FUTURE ACTIVITIES PLANNED Pasture progress is synonymous with a higher per-acre stocking, and it is based on the well-founded generalisation that the more stock we can adequately teed per acre the better the pastures become. The adequate feeding must be stressed, for progress is entirely dependent on adequate feeding, because the moment the sward is overpruned as a result of food shortage loss of production results and deterioration sets in, ultimately leading to a reduced per-acre stocking with its consequent ever-increasing compound deterioration.

THE main proiielliug force in initiating pasture progress is phosphate, and the machinery by which this force is applied is largely the elover of the sward. The efficiency of the clover type to fully exploit phosphates determines in large measure the rate and extent of pasture progress.

Pastures where clovers are weak or absent are relatively low-producing; they are difficult to improve by phosphating; they are of low palatability and of low nutritional value, and what grass is present is unthrifty. White clover, red clover, and subterranean clover are the three most efficient exploiters of phosphates, and the better the strain of these the more complete and the more efficient the process. Strain and pedigree in clovers will ultimately have a tremendous bearing on pasture progress. The strain-building work with white clover is well forward, and some certifie- 1 pedigree seed will soon be available. This pedigree strain has a high potential production, a high nalatability, and a long seasonal spread of its production. It has been specifically designed in this latter respect. and it can, in consequence, fully exploit phosphates, irrespective of the time of the year that phosphates are applied. Poor strains of white clover are relatively impotent to make full use of autumn-applied phosphates, because of their longer winter period of dormancy, compared with the pedigree strains, and autumn dressings of phosphates are very popular in New Zealand.

Stock make the country in virtue of the stock residues they return to the ground, more particularly in regard to nitrogenous compounds. The realisation that the grasses of the sward require nitrogen is a step forward in pasture progress. Grasses act as the machinery whereby full value is secured from nitrogen, whether fixed in the soil through the nodules of the clovers or applied in the form of artificial nitrogen, or ‘through the urine and droppings of stock. Pure swards of clover waste nitrogen, and it may even be inimical to clover growth and development.

Good strains of grasses—and this is where good strains of ryegrass particularly excel—fully exploit all available nitrogen, and these pull their full weight in pasture progress. Eight hundred bushels of Government stock pedigree ryegrass have this autumn gone into seed-growing channels, and before long this efficient strain will be available to carry the progress made possible by certified strains a stage further along the road of progress. Paslure progress may regarded as a cyclic movement, each circle being comprised of a number of steps or stages. Phosphate gives clover growth, more clover means more feed, more feed ore sto"’ stock more

stock nitrogen, more nitrogen more grass more grass more stock, and so the cycle goes on just so long as the propelling phosphate force is applied. On the amount of phosphate and on the efficiency of the clover plants to

use it; on the amount of stock and stock nitrogen returned; and on the efficiency of the grasses of the sward to use it, depends the ultimate circle of production. To progress, that circle must be kept constantly enlarging. It would appear that pasture, progress to-day rests on the use of simple mixtures, and the better the strain the simpler the mixture, for the simple reason that the more aggressive any one species becomes the greater is the difficulty of associating other species with it. Importance of Management. The management factor is all-impor-tant in relation to mixtures, and it would appear recognition must be given to the fact that the one and the same style of management does not suit all species alike. The management suitable for perennial ryegrass-white clover dominant pastures, for example, does not suit cocksfoot, timothy, paspalum, or Montgomery red clover dominant pastures. The question is not to eliminate these species entirely from the farm, but to put them somewhere on the farm in a separate paddock where they can be given the utilisation and management they demand. Building Up a Sward. Actually, special-purpose pasture and special crops, such as lucerne, can serve a very valuable part in building up the rest of the farm to a good rye-grass-white clover-dominant sward, because of the fact that they provide feed which, when fed out on to the grassed and stocked areas of the farm raises the actual per-acre stocking as far as the grassed pastures of the farm are concerned and hence the pastures are improved as a result of the inbroughf feeds fed on to them. Strain and pedigree work leading to greater aggression within the species may alter this simple mixture concept, but it certainly would appear that the more perennial ryegrass ‘ and white clover are improved the less chance the other species have to compete when sown along with them, and therefore until such time as the other species are vastly improved the special-purpose pasture would appear the only alter-

native to their elimination as a major element in the pasture sward. The relationship of grass to clover, particularly in dairying, needs attention, as clover may become so dominant as to cause concern regarding stock ailments and cream quality, objectionable feed flavours being imparted tc. the cream where cows are grazed on dominant clover pastures. Suckling clover, lotus hispidus, lotus major, subterranean clover, white clover, red clover and lucerne are all bad in this respect. The problem of making dairy pastures more grassy rather than more clovery is one that calls for attention; but here again it would appear the greater the pasture progress as far as productivity and carrying capacity are concerned, the more grassy do the pastures become, and this will lead ultimately to a diminution of the feed-flavour problem. Pedigree in grasses may help considerably in this direction, and we may have to be'more selective in the strain of clover we use. Improved processing, of course, in the dairy factories, however, may remove this bugbear of bad flavour in relation to the clover element in the sward, and research along these lines should be vigorously pursued. Pasture Problems. A higher and still higher per-acre stock concentration brings with it rather serious pasture problems, the main of which is winter poaching and consequent infestation of sutffi pastures with such pasture weeds as buttercup, docks, pennyroyal, and others. A diminution of this poaching must be aimed at, and perhaps some day winter stall-feeding will be adopted as a regular practice which will result in distinct gains from the point of view of pasture progress, particularly in those pastures that are regularly winter overstocked. A record of pasture progress will aid and be a guide to future development, and will indicate the potentialities that lie latent in pasture soil types throughout New Zealand. A pasture survey is now in progress and this has as its foundation a three-fold objective: (1) To accurately portray the grassland association each soil.

type will support in its unimproved condition; (2) the stage and rate, of progress made to date in pasture ini-’ provement, and (3) the ultimate potentialities that each soil type may be regarded as being heir to. Hand-in-hand with this is a farm-management survey and a soil survey. The former will collect and analyse data and sum up the economic factors and conditions underlying pasture progress, and the latter will help materially in defining just which soil types are the more amenable to economic development. Mr. E. A. Madden is in charge of the pasture survey, Mr. R. P. Connell is in charge of the farm-manage-ment survey, and Dr. Grange is in charge of the soil survey. Out of this combined effort must come good, and its ultimate compilation will set up for New Zealand a well-defined milestone from which future progress can be accurately measured. Future for Research. Research itself must progress, and the newly-constituted Grasslands Division of the Plant Research Bureau it is felt, is the Government’s expressed desire to place this important work on the best plane possible to carry on its research activities. Grassland research must be fostered to ensure pasture progress: research into manures—phosphatic and nitrogenous particularly—their manufacture, their availability, their concentration to reduce transjwrt costs and costs of application, plans for organised application of manures on to the land, may be on a contract basis; the effect of manures on various soils or the soil reaction on them; their loss in leaching and, through being locked up, to become unavailable to plants. Research into pasture plants themselves should be continued, aiming at a higher and still higher productivity, at a higher palatability and higher nutritive value at a longer seasonal spread of productivity and for a greater persistency. Research into their management and utilisation should be viewed both from the demands of the farm and from the demands of the plant itself, and research should be carried on into balance in

pastures so that seasonal flush periods of growth of the component species may not lead to a super-abundance of the one element at one time of the year and none at another. Balance to give quality in the animal product and to ensure the minimum of digestive upsets to the grazing animal is another matter for attention. Ways and means of recording pasture progress and in so condensing it so that it may lie absorbed by the present and future farmers of New Zealand, is also a subject for research. These are but a few lines along which I think future pasture progress will ultimately be made.

FLEECE TESTING

Ascertaining the Degree of Hairiness in Wool MASSEY COLLEGE WORK The hairiness and the count of wool are the two main factors at present receiving the attention of the fleece-test-ing department at Massey Agricultural College, Palmerston North, but .it is hoped to extend the activities of this department to other features of wool in the near future. This is the only service of its kind for New Zealand sheep-breeders at present in existence, and because of the fact that the apparatus with which this particular work is done exists only at this college, the service is unique in the world. When the wool levy was abandoned in 193-1, the work of this department was commenced in a small way at the request of certain Romney Marsh stud breeders who were anxious to eliminate hairiness from their flocks. Since then an increasingly large number of breeders in all parts of the North Island, and to a lesser extent in the South Island, have availed themselves of the service. For the year ended November 30 last, the total number of sheep tested and confidentially reported upon was 8599

and the number booked to be done was 6680. Most of these were registered Romney Marsh stud sheep, the remainder being Romney flock rams and a few sheep of other breeds. The department undertakes to sample any sheep to be tested, but prefers to do so after I lie owner has culled his flock for constitution and body conformation. As the result of the tests for hairiness, the sheep arc divided into seven classes: AAA, excellent; AA, very good; A, good; B, medium, C, poor; D, bad; and E, cull. This enables a breeder not only to cull the hairiest of his flock with greater certainty than formerly, but also allows him to make his future matings with proper regard to the state of hairiness of the individual sheep concerned. Moreover, seeing that the breeding ewes of a iloek contain a number of different generations, breeders who have kept adequate records have ■been able to trace lines of blood among the ewes, some showing persistent tendencies toward pure wool production and some showing equally persistent tendencies toward hair production. A knowledge of these inherent characteristics is obviously of even greater value than the knowledge of the state of hairiness of the individual sheep and this, of course, emphasises the immense value of the careful ear-tagging and recording of all stud sheep. The average number of Romney breeding ewes falling in the three top classes of the department’s classification is 55 per cent. There is, therefore, no reason why, during the course of the next few years, New Zealand Romney stud sheep should not be noted as the producers of the best pure wool of its kind in the world.

If a flock does not yield 55 per cent, of breeding ewes in the three top classes, it is clearly below the average in this respect, and the first necessity is culling among present, and future ewes. This constitutes the first test applied to any flock submitted for examination. It is of interest to note here that it is not unusual for double the number of “high-testing” (AAA, AA and A) lambs to be produced by high-

testing ewes, as compared with those from other ewes (B, C, D and E). The second test, one that has ouly recently been placed before breeders, is a progeny test of sires. The object of this test is to demonstrate, in a way not hitherto possible, whether the lambs, of any size, are better or worse in respect of hairiness than their mothers. For if they are definitely not as good as their mothers, then the sire in question is powerless to improve the flock. This progeny test, which is comparable with certain dairy stock progeny tests, has already brought to light some valuable information as to the relative values of different rams. The results already obtained indicate that certain “high-testing” rams yield very much greater numbers of “high-testing” lambs than do other “high-testing” rams.

The ultimate result of the work of the fleece-besting department is to enable breeders to offer for sale, not only tested rams, but also rams known to have descended from “high-testing” ancestors. This, in fact, is what a few of the breeders who first submitted their flocks to the test are now able to do on a small scale. When this becomes more general, its effects will then begin to make their appearance in the wool of the great crossbred flocks of the Dominion, and the department’s researches will assume a leading place in Now Zealand’s wool-producing industry beside being largely responsible for raising the standard of our wool for export.

Top-dressing operations during the 12 months ended January 31, 1935, covered a total area of 2,684,114 acres, which represents an increase of 434,944 acres as compared with the area topdressed during the preceding 12 months. Of this total, 2,295,250 acres were North Island land, and 358.864 in the South Island. The figures, which are the latest available, indicated that artificial fertilisers only were applied to 1,703,325 acres, and lime only to 145,956 acres. On 834,803 acres both artificial fertilisers and lime were used.