PAMPAS FODDER

Evening Post, Volume CXXIII, Issue 51, 2 March 1937, Page 4

PAMPAS FODDER

ITS DAIRY yALUES

DEEP-ROOTING. PLANT

ITS MOISTURE NEEDS

The' value of pampas grass as a supplementary fodder for dairy hards is the subject of a summarising .article in the "Empire Journal of Experimental Agriculture." New Zealand experience is surveyed and reviewed.

The first place where pampas, as a' suppV'mentary , winter feed, was! thoroughly tried was at Waitakaruru, j on the Hauraki Plains. This is a "drained swamp once reached by the sea; it is reclaimed salt-marsh land: Dairy farmers in the district generally use hay as supplementary fodder, for dairy cows in winter. One of them, Mr. A. McClean, found that his stock refused to eat hay when they could get pampas grass growing on' the land. He turned his attention to pampas and its cultivation, and he abandoned, hay-making and relied solely on pampas as supplementary fodder. In 1932 he reported to the chief chemist of the New Zealand. Department of Agriculture, Mr. B. G- Aston, that he was wintering his dairy herd for the second year .on pampas grass with no other supplementary fodder,: but the stock had a run-off of 43 acres with good cattle pasture. Mr. McClean also reported that with the aid of pampas- grass he could carry on his farm of 200 acres (including 30 to 40 acres in a rough state) 200 head of cattle the whole year round; his area under pampas, for grazing was nine acres. . ■ EFFECT ON BUTTER-FAT YIELD. Mr. Aston.is the.co-author, with Mr. R. E. R. Grimmett and Mr. F. B. Shorland, of this article^ in', the "Empire1 Journal." They, state that Mr. McClean reported that the health of the dairy herd had improved on pampas, and so had the yield of butter-fat; if the herd was taken off pampas, the yield at once diminished. "This experience was repeated by Mr.'McClean in later years.

.. . Mr., McClean. has modified the original method and now feeds his herd on pampas grass - twice a year instead of once—at the.two low grassproduction periods, midwinter, and midsummer—so that pampas grass may become a supplementary fodder available at any time of year. This is a particularly valuable quality, for a forage plant, in this country of .variable seasons. Experiments, including weighing the crop; suggest that, if two cuts are made a year, as much as; 50 tons per acre: of green matter- may be grown at Hauraki Plains." The cattle prefer eating the growing pampas to having it cut and carted to them. ■ .

The Fields Superintendent^ ,of the Department of Agriculture, Auckland, Mr. P. W. Smallfield, wrote, last year: "No one could .watch the cows on Mr. McClean's farm quietly grazing the pampas plants without being impressed with their potentialities—an actual living fodder for winter feeding." On Hauraki Plains roots ' of pampas have been traced to a depth of eight feet. ■ '■ '■■ ■ '■. ■ .'.-■■■■■■. SUITABILITY TO VARIOUS SOILS. One Waitakaruru does not constitute a complete New Zealand. * What is a success ..on- Hauraki Plains -salt-marsh may not be a success everywhere. But the writers of the article give other evidence of the successful use of pampas, elsewhere. "The/ present year's work (1936) suggests that every pampas plant is palatable to cattle if.the leaf is; not too old; that the "plant grows readily' on all soils, !if■ sufflcient-. ly. deep and moist for; the roots to' obtain the large ;amount of water required for such a; quick-growing tall graminaceous v; plant. It apparently flourishes in all climates throughout the Dominion, and has even been reported growing well in the arid district of inland Otago (Kurow) with a i-ainfall of twenty inches and'a severely cold winter with much frost... ... ~ Four or five of the leading types of ,:soil in .the Auckland Province1 have been proved to be successful sites for pampas plantations;, one of -them, extremely rich in plant-food, 'the .others extremely poor; the climates being fairly uniform, but the. soils, differing in texture and composition;; only one feature being common to,all—the good water-supply in the soil available ior deep-rooted plants...1:. - . -,■■, . : . ;- ■■'.■-.■> ■ ■ : ;'.■■

"Estuarial reclamations would seem, to be particularly suitable for-pampas plantations, but these differ in mineral, plant-food content.: Whangarei drained salt-marsh is extremely poor, and Hauraki Plains estuaries are very rich,-yet pampas grass flourishes equally in both and is palatable to stock in both. - Indeed, ' in: some areas at Whangarei.the pampas subject to un-controlled. grazing by cattle has been eaten out-and destroyed." excellent supplementary ■ ;.-■ . -■ foddee. . ■: ... \ The authors conclude that "pampas grass (Cortaderia selloana) 'provides, under certain conditions, an excellent supplementary, fodder for cattle,:, the coarse leaves being easily" grazed." It is "particularly suitable for reclaimed salt-marsh," but "flourishes ■on a wide range of soils in New Zealand.":; ■ A farmer may establish plantations ■of pampas by securing root-cuttings (or subdivision of clumps) but. this is not the best way. ' The best, way is to secure seedlings, which, under correct treatment, .stand up . best.. against droughts, or frosts, or weather conditions. -Once established, pampas defies most weather conditions, and is drought-resistant. " .. >'■" Where pampas throws seedlings,, as at Whangarei, these can be secured in abundance. At Whangarei "the seedlings are baled and carefully packed for transport by railway or boat at 30s per 1000, and already about 100,000 plants have been distributed by this method." . . . Pampas plants include male and female. Where pampas has been multiplied by planting subdivisions of, a single/plant, all the .new plants are of the one sex. The female plant has plumes larger and more handsome than the plumes of the male; therefore, in any given district, it is probable that all the pampas plants will be female, giving no seedlings. Yet in some localities, such as parts of Otago and Southland, only male plants are to be seen. Where both sexes, and seedlings, are present, "by selection from these seedlings different varieties could doubtless be produced, but such variation cannot be expected among plants asexually propagated," as by means of rootcuttings or subdivision' of clumps. The correct method of dealing with seedlings, from seed-pan to seed-bed, and later to field,' is described in detail, as it has been in the "New Zealand Journal of Agriculture." .