FARMS AND FARMERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 17 April 1934, Page 8

FARMS AND FARMERS

ITEMS OF INTEREST

(By

"Rouseabout")

AUTUMN HALVING

There is everything to be said in favour of autumn calving, especially of heifer?.. A»d it is a proposition to mate cows which have failed to hold at the ordinary time in the winter months s 6 that they will come on in the autumn. Bringing in the heifer in the autumn means that it will be more fully developed and be therefore in a better condition to face the first strain on its constitution, bqt it is the least of the advantages of autumn calving. , Coming in at such a time there is much less risk of disease, and the animal having to be properly fed at the commencement of its season it improves with the milk-producing value of the spring and eayly summer grass, and in consequence is encouraged to be a long season milker; and the heifer that has a long season will have a long season in after life. Autumn calving means some winter milking; 111 fact, milking all the year. But if New Zealand is to compete successfully against its rivals in the Northern Hemisphere it will have to develop a system which will enable it to spread its supplies to world markets throughout the whole year. Many farmers are realising this fact and are gradually developing a system of all-the-year dairying. Against its disadvantages they are realising there are compensating advantages, and not the least of these is the great improvement effected in the stock by autumn calving. PASTURE SEED MIXTURES

For general guidance the following pasture seed mixtures are recommended by Mr. E. Bruce Levy, agrostclcgist, Department of Agriculture:— For wide use in both. North and South Islands on country with a car-rying-capacity which is or can economically be made at the rate of one cow to two or three acres or better, or at the rate of two to three ewes to the acre or better: True perennial ryegrass, 201 b to 251 b; New Zealand cocksfoot, 101 b to 151 b; crested dogstail, 31b; Timothy, 31b; New Zealand white clover, 21b; red clover, 31b; total, 461 b. Amounts given in this and ether mixtures are per acre. The smaller amount of ryegrass is to be used mainly when the summer rainfall is below that needed for good results with ryegrass, and-under these conditions the larger amount ot cocksfoot is advisable, as it also is when it would not be economically attractive to raise the fertility of the lanci by top-dressing up to standard of fertility required by successful ryegrass. ' . . I For temporary pastures ot one to two years’ durations Italian ryegrass, 251 b to 301b;’ red clover. 61b; total, 311 b to 361 p. For a temporary pasture to serve as an autumn-sown catch-crop to be followed by another spring-sown crop, genuine Western Wolths, on acco.unt of heavy early growth, could usefully replace Italian ryegrass, which, however, should be employed in all temporary pastures other than autumn-sown catchFor short-rotation pastures which are intended to have a life of two or three vears: Italian ryegrass, 151 b; perennial ryegrass, 151 b; red clover, 41b; white clover, 21b; total, »61b. Short-rotation pastures are useful mainly on farms on which, largely because of climatic conditions, arable crops instead of pastures are the dominant concern. For sowing the primary burn out of the bush: Cocksfoot, 81b; crested dogstail, 31b; Italian ryegrass, 41b; true perennial ryegrass, 121 b; Poa pratensis, lib; bro.wntop, Wb; white clover, 21b; Lotus major, 11b; Danthonia pilosa, 31b; total,

For the sowing of secondary-bush turns— typical bracken, hard fern, and manuka burns: Perennial ryegrass, 81b; browntop, 21b; dogstail, 41b; white clover, 11b /-Lotus major, lib; Danthcnia pilosa, 31b; total, 191 b.

COWS MUST BB FED A- cow will naturally utilise feed for her own body requirements first. She makes milk of whatever is left. This is a simple fact that is too often ignored. With poor cows the great bulk of the feed goes to keep the aniipal. It is only the high producing cow that shows any real profit, that gives • any appreciable return above the' cost of maintenance. This is why good feeding gives little or no response in the case of low producers, but gives a handsome return with cows that are capable of high production. Here is seen another reason why it will pay to provide special feeding for the proved producers, which should certainly receive extra good treatment in the winter months. In older countries great importance is being attached to feeding according to the rate of production,- each member of the herd’ being fed according to its productive capacity. Where foodstuffs have to be purchased this is, of course, sound economy, but the New Zealand dairy farmer has an important object lesson in this sane policy. Even if it .is not possible to ration special food according to the yield of milk being given, it is certainly possible, and desirable, to feed seme extra food, if only bran, to the heavier producing members of the herd. WHAT WINTER GRASS MEANS The beneficial effect of “live” grass in thfe leaf stage fed to cows before calving is so great in the experience of a young Englishman now farming in this country, who tried it last season that he is going to treat his best ryegrass field with ammoniated super this year, at the end of April or beginning of May, and treat another good field a fortnight later. This year he will allow the cows for a month before calving on the good ryegrass for half to three-quarters of an hour a day. He will ration the next field in the same way, and this field will be used when the cows are in. He found that by giving the cows the daily allowance of rich succulent grass for the few weeks before Calving that they dame in in beautiful condition, had no udder trouble whatever and milked heavily from the first. This season with less money available the ration is to be cut down with the idea of making the grass last longer, And it is surprising how long such will last when it is carefully rationed.

A common mistake made in the I spring months is to allow the cows to

remain all day on rich grass. They should only be allowed on it for an hour in the morning and again for an hour in the afternoon. Overfeeding Of such Sfass digestive trouble, and’ this too, often leads to a njijd form of mammitis.

TOP-mSSING HI MANURES AND THEIR USES Ju farming-, in dairying, during the current difficult times, a consideration of prime morpent relative to any- practice is its I bearing on the cost of production. At times, farmers, if they can be judged by their are not guided in gj I their, decisions about top-dressing by its prospective bearing, on their farm- [ml|f ing costs. In this connection it is of IKj|l| moment that an increase of say 20 per cent, in production due to the use of fertiliser on grassland usually represents much more than an increase of 20 per cent, in net returns. This Ml I is because the overhead charges- for land, equipment, and labour would be substantially the same for the lower Pl •as for the higher production, and hence the main items that should be set against the value of the increased production due to top-dressing are the IH cost of the manure and the interest KUA and depreciation on the extra stock Utilised. The position may b e illus_ IHi l| trated by consideration of a sheep w? farm, the carrying capacity of which is increased by top-dressing from 1500 to 2000 ewes. In such a case the top- Sx? dressing may rightly be credited with (ml the whole of the returns for the ex- ™ tra 500 ewes less only the cost of the fertiliser and tlig cost of interest and m depreciation on the extra stock. A - hoi ternatively the relationship of topdressing to cost of production may be | gauged from the fact that top-dressing LWA would result in heavy fixed charges—such as annual cost of land, equip- IKJIH ment, and labour— being spread over the returns of not 1500 but 2000 sheep, representing a fall of 2 per scent. in IM these fixed charges, provided the vaiue of the production of stock units m remained constant. If the value of IWR top-dressing were estimated carefully in this way as often as it should be, Hl then there would be a substantial increase in the amount of fertiliser used || in top-dressing. . . „ m l While in some instances, in view of W < current produce prices, top-dressing rtgjif may not affect the returns enough to W turn an unprofitable farming, proposition into a profitable one, it may be Jflh expected, as a rule, to make unprofitable farms less unprofitable- w; Two qualifications attach to the ffl preceding statements relative to the value of top-dressing. In the fit st place, the statements presuppose ju- 111 ] dicious expenditure on top-dressing. lulj At times expenditure on top-dressing is far from judicious, and so it seems Hl worth stating that top-dressing practice should be based on evidence provided as a result of local field expen- Ml ence Too often farmers are swayed in respect to their manure purchases by tradition, by semi-scientific or by jjrtj pseudo-scientific jargon, or by aecounts of varying accuracy about ex- m perience in other districts in which MT ' the conditions may or may not be esseiitially different. As a result, out- |W lay is dissinated on top-dressing ma- iWJ • terial from* which little or no benefit ! seems to be obtained, whereas often gjl • equal outlay could be made on otnei ■ material which would give eminently attractive results. The uncertain val- Im 1 ue of guidance taken from experience ' in other districts is strikingly exem- fm : plifieci in the case of the use of both , lime and potash. In certain districts • definite visible benefit follows the use ffl ■ of one or both these substances on • grassland. Though at times the eco- - nomic value of this beneficial effect HJ may not have been measured accur- Uj

ately, the effect is striking enough to |, justify the use of the substances eith- ■ er freely or fairly extensively in a ( trial way. Qn the other hand, in cer- ( tain other districts, sometimes not far ! distant from the former ones, visible benefit results from neither lime nor potash applied to pastures, and re- , commendations to use lime or potash | in the latter districts cannot be justi- , lied because of the experience m the i former districts. Yet, strange as it | may seem, top-dressing is at times ■ based on such recommendations The influence of tradition and or | miscellaneous jargon commonly re- ( places the influence of field evidence as the basis of liming. For instance, it is to some extent a tradition that liming will improve stock in respect to bone development. Before attaching much weight to this as a basis of specific top-dressing action, it is well to establish whether stock show any deficiency in bone development, and, if so, to inquire further whether phosphatic manures which normally enrich the pastures in lime and phosphoric acid—both of which are essential for bone development—could not be advantageously employed to remedy the weakness. In a somewhat similar way the traditional use of liming as a means of reducing the incidence of stock disease should be considered’- If this is done it will often be found that no casual connection between liming and disease has been established in respect to some districts in which liming has been advocated largely as a means of coping with stock diseases. However, there are occasions in which reduction in disease has been associated with liming. The need is to restrict suitably the'application of conclusions deduced from such occasions. Elementary as the above reasoning about the basis of top-dressing may seem, it is so often violated that farmers might well ask themselves whether their topdressing is founded on conip&raolQ field experience or on one of the other bases such, as tradition. lA the second place, general statements relative to the value of topdressing always should be restricted by the qualification that there are grassland areas for which top-dress-ing is not recommended. This is likely to be true, for instance, of land of relatively low carrying capacity, and especially is this so when low prices prevail. In illustration of this, improved price of wool and lambs may make top-dressing profitable on sheep country where it previously would have been unprofitable. Hpwever, the areas on which wet stock are carried and on which top-dressing is not advisable are exceptional, and a farmer should satisfy himself that his is one of the exceptional areas before he decides to forgo the substantial assistance usually obtainable from appropriate top-dressing.