FOOD FOR STOCK

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 154, 15 June 1932, Page 11

FOOD FOR STOCK

ROTATIONAL GRAZING. TEST IN NEW SOUTH WALES. The New South Wales advisory committee of the Australian Dairy Council is concentrating on the demonstration of the full rotational system of grazing as practised in New Zealand and other countries. Last year ten farms were selected for this purpose and subdivided into paddocks on the ratio of 10 to 12 cows to the acre. A producer milking 50 cows would subdivide into six or eight paddocks of five acres each. After subdivision the paddocks are fed down or mown, renovated thoroughly, and then top-dressed with various fertilisers and mixtures. When growth is sufficient the cows are rotationally grazed over the series of paddocks, allowing three days, or more or less according to the growth of the pasture. So successful were the whole of these series of tests that resists have shown an actual increase no to 41 per cent, over the preceding year from the same number of cows milking. Because of this the committee is extending the system to eight to nine extra farms this year.

For the first year the fertiliser firms found all the manure and lime required i.’“e, but on account of the development these firms are insisting on the producer paying 50 per cent, of the landed cost of all fertilisers. Where the farmer cannot do this the committee and fertiliser firms bear the cost between them.

The supervision of the demonstiations was carried out by officers of the agrostologists’ branch of the Department of Agriculture and of the plant food advisory committee. Recently a large quantity of certified seed has been purchased in New Zealand and distributed among 33 farmers in the coastal areas. The seed consists of winter-growing grasses, including per. ennial rye, cocks-foot, also red and white clovers. Various mixtures of these and also of the grass Phalaris tuberosa will be sown in four one-acre plots, three of which are to be properly prepared by ploughing and harrowing, and the remaining plot drastically renovated. Interest in pasture improvement is being stimulated by conferences and lectures. One conference held early in the year at Kempsey under the auspices of the Macleay River Co-operative Dairying Company proved a great success.