PASTURE PROGRESS

Manawatu Standard, Volume LVI, Issue 168, 17 June 1936, Page 18

PASTURE PROGRESS

OBJECT OF INVESTIGATION SURVEY UNDER WAY (By E. Bruce Levy, Grasslands Division, Plant Research Bureau.) Pasture progress is synonymous with a higher pcracre stocking, and it is based on the well-founded generalisation that the more stock we can adequately feed per acre the better the pastures become The adequate feeding must be stressed for progress is entirely dependent on adequate feeding because the moment the sward is overpruned as a result of food shortage loss of production results and deterioration sets in, ultimately leading to a reduced per-acre stocking with its consequent, ever-increasing compound deterioration.

INFLUENCE OF CLOVERS. The main propelling force in initiating pasture progress is phosphate and the machinery by which this force is applied is largely the clover of tho sward. The efficiency of the clover type to fully exploit phosphates determines in a large measure the rate and extent of pasture progress. Pastures where clovers are weak or absent are relatively low-producing; they are difficult to improve by pliosplmting; they arc of low palatability and of low nutritional value, and what grass is present is unthrifty. White clover, red clover and subterranean clover are the three most efficient exploiters of phosphates, and tho better the strain of these tho more complete and more efficient the process. Strain and pedigree in clovers will ultimately have a tremendous bearing on pasture progress. The strain-building work with white clover is well forward and some certified pedigree seed will soon be available. "Inis pedigree strain lias a high potential production, a high palatability, and a long seasonal spread of its production, ft has been specifically designed in this latter respect and it can in consequence fully exploit phosphates irrespective of the time oi the year that phosphates are applied. Poor strains of white clover are relaI tivelv impotent to make full use of ' autumn-applied phosphates owing to their longer winter period of dormaey compared with the pedigree strains, and autumn dressings of phosphates are very popular in New Zealand. CYCLIC MOVEMENT. Stock make the country in virtue- ol tlie stock residues they return to the ground, more particularly in regard to nitrogenous compounds. The realisation that the grasses of the sward require nitrogen is a step forward in pasture progress. Grasses act as the machinery whereby full value is secured from nitrogen, whether fixed in the soil through the nodules of the clovers or applied in the form of artificial nitrogen, or through the agency of stock. Pure swards of clover waste nitrogen arid it may even be inimical to clover growth and development. Good strains of grasses —and this is where good strains of ryegrass particularly excel—fully exploit all available .nitrogen and these pull their full weight in pasture progress. Eight hundred bushels of Government stock pedigree ryegrass have this autumn gone into seed-grow-ing channels and before long this efficient strain will be available to carry the progress made possible bv certified strains a stage further along the road of progress. We may regard pasture progress as a cyclic movement, each circle being comprised of a number of steps or stages. We may sta.rt off at any point with phosphate as the propelling force. Phosphate gives clover growth, more clover means more feed, more feed more stock, more stock more stock nitrogen, more nitrogen more grass, more grass more stock, and so the cycle goes on just so long as the propelling phosphate force is applied. On the amount of phosphate and on the efficiency of the clover plants to use it; on the amount of stock and stock nitrogen returned; and on the efficiency of the grasses of the sward to use it, depends the ultimate circle of production. To progress, that circle , must be kept constantly enlarging. •

other species to compete when sown along with them, and hence until such time as the other species are vastly improved the special purpose pasture would appear the only alternative to their elimination as a major clement in tlie pasture sward. GRASS AND CLOVER. The relationship of grass to clover, particularly in dairying, needs attention as clover may become so dominant as to cause concern regarding stock ailments nnd cream quality, objectionable feed flavours being imparted to the cream where cows are grazed oil dominant clover pastures. Suckling clover, lotus hispidus, lotus major, subterranean clover, white clover, red clover and lucerne are all bad in this respect. The problem of making dairypastures more grassy rather than more clovery is one that calls for attention ; but here again it would appear the greater the pasture progress as far as productivity and carrying capacity are concerned, the more grassy do the pastures become, and this will lead ultimately to a diminution of the i'eedftavour problem. Pedigree in grasses may help considerably in this direction and we may have to be more selective in the strain of clover we use. Improved processing of course in the dairy factories may remove this bugbear of bad flavour in relation to the clover element in the sward, and research along these lines should be vigorously pursued.

A higher and still higher per-acre stock concentration brings with it rather serious pasture problems, the main of which is winter poaching and consequent- infestation of such pastures with such pasture weeds as buttercup, docks, pennyroyal and others. A diminution of this poaching must be aimed at and perhaps one day we will see winter stall-feeding adopted as a regular practice which will result in distinct gains from the point of view of pasture progress, particularly in those pastures that are regularly winter over-stocked. A THREE-FOLD AIM. A record of -pasture progress will aid and be a guide to future development and will indicate the potentialities that lie latent in pasture soil types throughout New Zealand. A pasture survey is now in progress and this has as its foundation a three-fold objective : (1) To accurately portray the grassland association each soil type will support in its unimproved condition. (2) Tho stage and rate of progress made to date in pasture improvement, and (3) The ultimate potentialities thateach soil type may be regarded as being heir to. Hand in hand with, this is a farmmanagement survey and a soil sur vey. 'File former will collect and ' analyse data and sum up the economic factors and conditions underlying pasture progress, and the latter will help materially in defining just which soil types are the more amenable to economic development.

Mr E. A. Madden is in charge of the pasture survey, Mr R. P. Connell is in charge of tlie farm-management survey, and Dr; Grange is in charge ol the soil survey. Out of this combiner! effort must come good, and its ultimate compilation will set up for New Zealand a well defined milestone from which future progress can be accurately measured. SCOPE FOR RESEARCH. Research itself must progress and the uewlv constituted Grasslands Division of tlie Plant Research Rureau, we •anersrely hope, is the Government’s expressed desire to place this important vvork on the best plane possible to carry on its research activities. Grassland research must he fostered to ensure pasture progress; research into manures —phosphatic and nitrogenous particularly —their manufacture, their availability, their concentration to reduce transport costs and costs of application. plans for organised application of manures on to the land, may be on a contract basis; the effect of manures on various soils or tlie soil reaction on them, their loss in leaching and, through being locked up to become unavailable to plants. Research into pasture plants themselves should bo continued, aiming at a higher and still higher productivity, at a higher palatability and higher nutritive value, at a longer seasonal spread of productivity and For a greater persistency: research into their management ,and utilisation viewed both from the demands of the farm and from the demands of the plant itself; research into balance in pastures so that seasonal flush periods of m-owth of tho component species may not lead to a superabundance of the one element at one time of the year and none at another; balance to give quality in the animal product and to ensure the minimum of digestive upsets to the grazing animal; research into ways and means of recording pasture progress and in so condensing it that it may be absorbed by the present and future farmers of New Zealand. These are but a few lines along which I think future pasture progress will ultimately be made.

It would appear that pasture progress to-day rests on the use of simple mixtures, and the better the strain the simpler the mixture, for the simple reason that the more aggressive any one species becomes tlie greater is tlie difficulty of associating other' species with it. MANAGEMENT FACTOR. The management factor is all important in relation to mixtures, and it would appear we must recognise this fact, i.e., that the one and the saint style of management does not suit all species alike. The management suit able for perennial ryegrass-white elovei dominant pastures, for example, does not suit cocksfoot, timothy, paspaluni, or Montgomery Red clover dominant pastures. 'The question before us, J think, is not to eliminate these species entirely from the farm, but to put them somewhere on tlie farm in a separate paddock where tlifry can be given the utilisation and management they demand. In other words, cannot we regard these as special-purpose paddocks much in the same way as we have already come to regard lucerne? No one to day would put lucerne in a general grass mixture and expect to get goon results from it, whereas sown separately and given tlie utilisation and management .it demands, lucerne can help materially with the food supply of the farm. Actually special purpose pasture and special crops such as lucerne can serve a very valuable part in building up the rest'of the farm to a good rye-grass-wliite clover dominant sward, because of tlie fact that they provide feed which when fed out on to tilt grassed and stocked areas of the farm raises the actual per-acre stocking as far as the grassed pastures of the farm are concerned, and hence the pastures are improved as a result of the in brought feeds fed on io them. Strain and pedigree work leading to greater aggression within the species mav alter this simple mixture concept, but it certainly would appear that tlie more we improve perennial ryegrass and white clover the less chance have the