PRODUCTION PER ACRE.

King Country Chronicle, Volume XXV, Issue 3303, 14 May 1931, Page 2

PRODUCTION PER ACRE.

HOW TO INCREASE IT. LECTURE BY DR. H. E. ANNETT. Various methods by which agricultural scientists were assisting farmers to increase their production per acre, were explained in a lecture by Dr. H. E. Annett, held under the auspices of the Morrinsville branch of the Farmers' Union.

According to Mr. Pawcett, the farm economist of the Department of Agriculture, who had investigated 2000 dairy farms, the average production was 80 pounds of butter-fat per acre a year, and the cost of production was Is 2y 2 d to Is 3%d per pound. This gave no profit at present prices. There were farms where the production was 180 pounds of fat per acre, and the cost of production was 9Y 2 d to 10%d per pound. These figures showed the great necessity for increasing per-acre production, just as in any manufacturing business the great thing was to increase the turnover and thereby decrease overhead expenses. In order to get costs down farmers had to increase their production per acre. The lecturer proposed to show the various means by which this could be done.

To get high production per acre a farmer must have a good herd, but Mr. Fawcett's 'figures showed that it was high-carrying capacity per acre rather than high yield per cow that was important. Herd-testing associations in New Zealand, Denmark and Australia had done much to increase the production per cow, and the speaker hoped that every farmer present was a member of the association. However, the control and improvement of pastures was equally important, because good cows could not do as well on poor pastures as on those properly managed. In the speaker's opinion many farmers did not appreciate how important it was to have shelter to protect the pasture from dry winds in summer.

Most important was the control of pasture to ensure getting the full value of young grass. Experiments in England showed that, provided grass was fed not more than four or five inches high, the farmer had feed equal to linseed cake. No other concentrated food that scientists could produce had the feed value of young grass; therefore it was important to see that grass was kept at this stage of growth. This meant subdividing into small paddocks, so that the stock could be moved round and the pastures kept at the young grass stage. It was no use having long grass or "foggage." "If you have foggage the animals do not graze evenly over the field, but do selective grazing, avoiding the long grass. If you look into the tufts of foggage you will find no good rye grass, but only brown top, Yorkshire fog and similar second-rate grasses. Our idea is to make the animals eat evently all over the field without selecting. If they do not they will eat only the good grass, neglecting the poorer grass, which will seea and spread. I am certain that people do not realise the necessity for keeping pastures under close control. If you grow foggage you cannot have high butterfat production per acre. If you are convinced that foggage is good do not put the manure heavily, for you will only have more long foggage to go to waste."

Much good work was being done in New Zealand in the way of isolating good producing strains of grasses and clovers. New Zealand led the way in this respect of pasture improvement. It was an enormous advantage to sow good Hawke's Bay ryegrass which produced plenty of leaf and very little seed, instead of Canterbury ryegrass, which lasted for only a few seasons and produced less leaf and more seeds. The reason for this difference in the two strains was that Hawke's Bay pastures had been grazed for 40 or 50 years, and as a result they had developed a. class of ryegrass which does not seed much but throws out a lot of leafy feed and is permanent. Farmers in Can-1 terbury had been accustomed to plough up their fields every few years, and so the ryegrass had developed into a strain which produced very little leaf and much seed and was only temporary. Experiments at the Aberystwith Research Station, in Wales, showed that the permanent strains ' responded much more to fertiliser than the temporary strains. The department was certifying to the fact that certain growers in Hawke's Bay ( had pure permament ryegrass, and in time this seed would come down in price. Farmers might just as well j throw money away as plant temporary • rye when the could get permanent rye. Similar work was being done to

develop strains of cocksfoot, white clover and red clover, which would produce plenty of leaf all the year round and not much flower. By means of slides the lecturer showed the difference in foliage between the good strains and the poorer strains. After numerous questions had been asked and answered the meeting was closed with a hearty vote of thanks to Dr. Annett.