PASTURE RESEARCH

Manawatu Standard, Volume LIII, Issue 244, 12 September 1933, Page 8

PASTURE RESEARCH

BENEFIT TO DOMINION. MINISTERIAL STATEMENT. WELLINGTON, Sept. 12. Pasture research work and its economic significance to the Dominion were commented upon by the ActingMinister of Scientific and Industrial Research, Hon. E. A. Ransom, in the course of an interview. Pastures, Mr Ransom said, constituted tire largest crop in New Zealand. In realisation of this considerable attention had been given to them during the last few years. This attention had brought commendable economic results, as evidenced by the selection of superior strains from among the principal pasture grasses grown in the Dominion.

“Most people are aware of the increased value that can be imparted to ryegrass pastures by the utilisation of true perennial seed such as has been grown in Hawke’s Bay and Canterbury,” said Mr Ransom. “Where perennial characteristics are required in a pasture, it is now generallv well understood that farmers will get easily, tire best results from the utilisation of certified seed, the grass from which possesses those desirable characteristics of fodder production for which they have been specially studied, and selected at the plant research station. This work is being continued, and most of the Dominion’s pasture grasses and clovers are now being submitted to very close examination, selection, and breeding, with a view to isolating strains of high feed value. “Of particular interest to South Island farmers, where tire maintenance of satisfactory pastures is often a difficult problem, there is, on the lighter lands where the rainfall is less regular and certain, the cocksfoot strain, known as C 23, developed at Lincoln College. The characteristics of the C 23 strain of cocksfoot are its leafiness, long growth period, and capacity for producing fodder at those times of the year when green grass normally is in short supply. Tests are in progress to determine its feed value, and the results of recent investigations made at Lincoln College have indicated that sheep grazed on the C 23 strain made an average gain of 31b. per head during a corresponding time when others grazed on cocksfoot grown from commercial lines of seed, lost, on the average, fib. per head. “The success which has attended the work in these various pasture grasses lias indicated that the search for high-yielding strains possesses very wide economic significance in increasing the carrying capacity of our farms, and the" degree of utilisation to which each acre can be put.”