SEASONAL LUCERNE WORK.

Manawatu Standard, Volume LX, Issue 29, 3 January 1940, Page 12

SEASONAL LUCERNE WORK.

HAYMAKING. (■Written for the “Standard.”) Established stands of lucerne will now bo in full vigour and yielding successive crops. These crops, in order to avoid wastage and subsequent injury to the plants, must be dealt with expeditiously. With the advent of fine weather haymaking will be general, and this calls for some extra degree of knowledge when the crop in question is lucerne. The best stage of growth at which to cut lucerne in order to obtain the maximum nutrients of the crop, and at the same time reduce plant exhaustion to the minimum, is not earlier than the period of middle bloom, nor should the blossoms be past full bloom. Trials carried out at the Utah Experiment Station showed that cutting lucerne when immature, or after the flowers had fallen, considerably reduced the protein content, the highest feeding value being obtained by cutting when the crop was in full flower. Mowing should be carried out when the herbage is free of moisture and the hay cured in cocks. The New Zealand climate is too changeable to risk curing lucerne in swathe or windrow. When lucerne is exposed for any great length of time to hot sun witli intervals of rain after cutting, the leaves drop off in handling, and the hay loses most of its value. When we realise that 441 b of leaves are equivalent in feeding value to 1001 b of stems, it is readily seen that when leaves fall during the curing process the most valuable constituents of the hay are lost. LOSSES IN HAYMAKING. Losses in hay making, even during favourable weather, may through inattention and Jack of knowledge, prove to be very considerable, and in place of highly palatable and nutritious hay the resultant product may be little more than a bulky mass of woody and indigestible fibre. Headden of the Colorado Experiment Station found that “a very leafy, small-stemmed lucerne plant may have more than GO per cent, of leaves and ; consequently less than 40 per cent, of j stems, hilt the stems of an average plant will amount to between 40 and GO per cent. Inasmuch as many of the smaller stems may go with the leaves, the loss in haymaking can, and in some cases does, amount to from 50 to GO, and even more, per cent. We have been led by our experience and obserIvation to the conclusion that the linin i mum Joss from the falling off of leaves and stems in successful hayI making amounts to from 15 to 20 per cent., and in cases where the conditions have been unfavourable to as in itch as GO and even G(J per cent, of the dry crop, or.'for each liOOlb of ! hay taken off a field, at least 3001 b lof leaves and small stems are left, and, in very bad eases, as much as 12001 b may be left for each SOOlb taken.” Of course, the latter is extreme, but it docs occasionally happen even under the best weather and general conditions of !iavniaking. DAMAGE TO HAY FROM. RAIN. The same experimentalist studied the losses in lucerne hay due to had weather. One sample of bay remained out fifteen days during which time it was subjected to three rain storms, amounting in all to 1.70 in. The other sample was irom bay cured without injury by rain. (Samples of this lniy were analysed with the results shown below: May not Hay ( damaged, damaged. Ash 3 2.2 p.c.' 12.7 p.c. |Crude fibre ... 20.5 p.c. 38.8 p.c. (Other extract ••• 3.0 p.c. 3.8 p.c. Protein 18.7 p.c. 11.0 p.c. Nitrogen-free extract 38.7 p.c. 33. G p.c. It will be seen that the crude fibre, the poorest part of the hay, was increased, and the prutuiii and nitro-gen-free extract, the most valuable portions, were materially reduced by weathering. We gather from the foregoing that in making liav from lucerne the great- ’ est care should be exercised in saving the leaves and finer parts so easily wasted. The green plants cut with the ; mower should be gathered when partly ; dry with the lia.v rake into windrows i sufficiently loose to dry still more, but ; compact enough to hold the leaves and ; finer parts. Haymaking from lucerne : cannot be altogether taught by books, ■ but the figures presented by the Coloi rado Station showing the possible ! losses in haymaking should incite farmers to a careful study of the principles underlying successful practice in . handling the crop. After windowing the lucerne should be put into cocks. If left in windrow the action of sun ■ and wind makes the bay brittle and : causes the leaves to drop. It is a good ; plan to first form small cocks, and

later place several of these together, j handling the hay with all possible care. Baling direct from the cock is preferable to slacking. It obviates sweating, arid by doing so the hay retains to a great extent that fresh appearance, green colour, and aroma which is characteristic of all well-made hay. MANURING AND CULTIVATION. The question of the advisability of manuring lucerne has been debated at much length and is still a controversial subject. One section holds that ' manuring shortens the life of the plant, and that the application of fertiliser to the surface encourages surlace roots, at the expense ol : the tap root. Experiments conducted by the writer and others have invariably shown that the manured plots gave the heaviest yields throughout the duration of the trials. For the purposes or one experiment, the various plots of I lucerne were dressed respectively with superphosphate, superphosphate and lime, and lime alone; from these dressings the following weights of green lucerne per acre were obtained: From a dressing of 2 ewt. superphosphate, 6.8 Lons; 2 ewt. superphosphate and 4 ewt. carbonate of lime, 7.6 tons; from 8 ewt. of carbonate of lime, 5.6 tons. Where no manure or lime was used the plants did not appear so vigorous and only 3.65 tons per acre were obtained. I am fully convinced that good results may be expected from top-dress-ing lucerne with phosphates in summer. Generally, summer top-dressing benelits lucerne almost exclusively, whereas the benefit of spring topdressing may be shared between lucerne and other plants which amongst lucerne are weeds, irrespective of their worth under different conditions. As a rule a suitable time for the cultivation of lucerne is immediately after the second or third cut of the season. The essential objective of cultivation is normally the suppression of weeds, and the dry conditions which usually prevail at about the time of the second and third • cuttings assist considerably in weed control. If weeds are not encroaching on the lucerne, cultivation on light soils at any time is likely to be not only unnecessary but actually undesirable. Cultivation will, however, benefit where tiie surface lias become unduly hard. . . , ]t is frequently advisable in tne early part of the New Year 19 mow younc lucerne which was sown in November. Generally such a, mowing is necessitated by a vigorous development of weeds which tend to “choke the lucerne seedlings by lessening their supply of moisture and of direct light. But if weeds do not threaten damage to the lucerne seedlings then such an early mowing should not take place. Dll rin" the young stages of the crop, leafage, if unchecked, assists considerably in building up an extensive root 'system which is capable of serving well in subsequent dry periods. One of the critical periods in the life of lucerne is at the first spring rol lowing the sowing ol the crop, and an extensive root system built up dining the first summer assists the crop _ at this critical period to compete against invading weeds.