TOP-DRESSING PASTURES

Hawera Star, Volume XLIX, 31 August 1929, Page 16

TOP-DRESSING PASTURES

THE USE OF SUPERPHOSPHATE

A WONDERFUL STIMULANT. The essence of successful dairying lies in the quality of the pastures. Quality in pastures can only be obtained by the liberal use of fertilisers. Dairy farmers have learnt by experience that superphosphate used as top-dressing has a wonderful beneficial action in stimulating the growtli of grasses and clovers. This fertiliser, which provides phosphates in a water-soluble form, gives quick returns, especially when applied in winter and early spring. It stimulates root growth, makes the pastures more palatable, and provides that mineral matter so essential to cows during pregnancy and during lactation. PHOSPHATES NOT WASHED AWAY It is a mistaken notion that, because superphosphate contains water-soluble phosphates, these leach away in the drainage water. This is not so, as can be easily demonstrated by passing water through a tube packed with soil to which superphosphate has been applied. No phosphates are found in the drainage water. They are completely absorbed by the surface layer of soil and are used by plants as required. PHOSPHATES ESSENTIAL FOR DAIRY COWS. It is not always realised what large quantities of phosphates are required by dairy cows. Besides requiring a large quantity during pregnancy, the dairy cow must absorb food containing phosphates for her own maintenance and for the production of at least five to six times her own weight in milk per annum. The question a dairy farmer may ask himself is whether his cattle are receiving sufficient phosphates for the purposes mentioned above. It may be asserted with confidence that very few cows do receive sufficient phosphates to maintain a maximum production of milk and keep them in good health for a period of years. FREQUENT DRESSINGS MEAN HEAVY MILKERS.

Progressive dairy farmers are now topdressing more frequently; it now being common practice to top-dress twice op even three times a year with soluble phosphates as found in superphosphate. By doing so the pastures are continually fed with that ingredient most required by dairy cattle, with the result that the milk-producing capacity of cattle is maintained at its fullest capacity and the animal retained in normal health. The day of the use of slow-acting fertilisers is past; the dairy farmer cannot afford to wait months for results. Thus the supremacy of superphosphate as a phosphatie dressing for pastures required for intensive dairying is firmly

the tank. This process not only insures ibetter milk but prevents spread of disease through the mixed whey and improves the feeding value of the whey. One of the worst reflections on the cheese industry of this state is that some makers refuse jtu adopt methods which the most successful <j*' their number have used for years-' scalding the whey before it is returned to the farms.

The next step is to point out to the fanner the simple things he should do in order to deliver milk lower in bacteria. The animals should be kept reasonably clean at all times of the year by attention to stables and yards. Especial attention should be given to milk utensils. This means washing them carefully:, .scalding them thoroughly and drying them quickly. Milking machines, in particular, need constant attention, or all the patrons of a factory stand to lose more than the user of "a machine gains. It must be remembered that in any eo-operative cheese factory what any patron does in handling his milk is of equal advantage or disadvantage to all. in other words, the patron delivering poor milk harms every other patron or that factory. The conclusion must be drawn that each one ought to be as much interested in how the other patrons produce, milk as lie is in his own methods. No patron of cheese factory can live unto himself alone. When this is realised, one factory will not be willing to accept the milk refused by another, because the patrons ol the former will realise that by such actions they will receive less for the milk thov deliver.

Another objection is that the, test involves too much work. If its expense in materials and time is greater thail the value of the results, the objection is valid. Any method of tasting and improving milk demands time and effort.

A third objection is that the milk is used before it can be tested. if a method of inspection were available whereby the maker could reject milk unfit for cheesemnking at the intake, its value would be great. As has been pointed out, however, when one is interested in a general improvement, the average quality supplied by a particular patron is of chief importance, and the impossibility of repecting a particular batch of'milk by the use of the test is of littlemonient .'

Still another objection is that cheese is not purchased by the distributors on a quality basis. If this be true, the •industry is' headed for ruin, for it is easier and cheaper to make poor than good cheese. If the price is the same for both, the margin left maker anti farmer is greater for poor than for good cheese, and all will soon be hurrying to see who can make the “spread” the greatest by cutting costs of production irrespective of quality of product. The only salvation of the industry is to make consistently that quality of cheese which the consumer wishes, for then he will use the- greatest amount at a fair price. The interest of all Avill be served, and all I will reap an advantage. In no other' way lies success for the cheese in- j dustry. ■ DIFFERENTIAL PRICES. !

Grading and differential prices for the different grades have come in the market milk fields and in creamery practice and will come in the cheese industry. Education will do much to impro ve miik supplies, hut the id lent \oico of lower prices for lower grades makes the producer more anxious to receive and 1 adopt suggestions. It is not possible to outline a definite scheme for milk grading by use of the plan herein presented Aliy plan must involve at least two grades. It may be that the line of division can bo placed at three hours in the test, providing a considerable part of the pations supply milk exceeding this limit. At other factories it might have to be higher or lower, the point being that at the start such a plan of the patrons shall be placed in the upper group as to sene as an incentive to those of the lower group. The differential in price must he sufficient to act as a stimulus to improvment. No one is i in position to say what leal difference I in value exists between one hour milk I and lour hour milk. It may amount to j 10 per cent, of the average price, ovj

for 2.00 .dollars per hundred pounds the upper grade would receive 2.10 the lower 1.90 dollars. The difference may be such as will justify ail even greater differential. ! It is also certain that the time in the methylene blue test, . which shall separate the grades from one another, will have to be changed as progress is made toward the goal of, one may say, five hour milk from all patrons at all seasons. (VB J EOT lONS TO O 7? A DING. The chief objection likely to he urged against grading is that it involves the separate manufacture of the different grades. It is. believed by the writers that this is neither necessary nor desirable and that the separate manufacture might result in a lower price for the entire output than if all grades of milk had been bandied in one vat. The value of a mass of miik depends on the value of its component parts, as the value of a herd depends on the individuals therein. There would seem to be no more reason for the use of two vats in a factory grading its supply than for two barns for the farmer who lias determined by j testing which if his cows are profit-j able and which are not.. ;