DRY SPELL EFFECTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 February 1947, Page 4

DRY SPELL EFFECTS

PASTURES STILL IN GOOD ORDER NO CHECK AS YET “Generally speaking a real ‘drought’ stage has not been reached in regard to pastures on the West Coast but a good shower of rain would be beneficial in the lighter areas, where the grass is beginning to burn up,” said the Department of Agriculture fields instructor at Greymouth, Mr. J. R. Shepherd, yesterday, in referring to the effects of the prolonged dry spell. Mr. Shepherd added that where consolidation was sufficient, there was ample moisture underneath to sustain the grasses and there had been excellent growth since January, thus compensating for the hard spring. Farmers had now had the opportunity to insure against another bad spring and many wise ones had already done so. Haymaking was well advanced and there had been little trouble in getting the hay dry. A pleasing feature of the seasonal operations was the fact that quite a lot of ensilage was being made, although the quality of some of the material being used could be better.

Young grass and root crops would be benefited by a shower of rain, said Mr.' Shepherd, but in most areas there had been no check to growth as yet. Pastures which had not been cut for hay and ensilage would be vastly improved by “topping.” Throughout the West Coast quite a lot of root crops and supplementary feed’s were being grown. For the first time some farmers had planted chou moellier and it was expected that this green crop would prove very satisfactory, being suitable for cattle, sheep, and pigs.