PASPALUM HAY.

Northern Advocate, 21 August 1919, Page 1

PASPALUM HAY.

AN EFFICIENT MILK PRODUCER,

Dairy farmers on the South Coast, New South Wales, have net y e t decided gn the relative advantages and disadvantages of paspalum, but' an Australian writer says there is. no doubting the fact fcha.t it is a good servant if a bad master. Treated reasonably and kept under control, it supplies part of a dairy ration more cheaply and effectively than almost any other crop. Evidence of this fact was available at Berry Experiment Farm this winter, when the hay from a paspalum paddock was brought inte requisition. The crop was cut in November last, when five or six feat high, and parts of the 15 acres yielded at the rate of two tons per acre, while the whole paddock averaged over 30 cwt at the one cutting. The sample to be seen at the Department of Agriculure recently tfas. sweet, of good colour, held its, leaf -well, and was in every respect a highly palatable fodder. The cows consume it eagerly. The heaviest milkers receive a ration composed of:—l2lb paspalum hay, 121b maize ensilage, 2 lb bran, 1 lb pollard, 1 lb linseed meal, and from 1 to 2 lb oats, and this is reduced in the case of those which have been in milk a few months, and whose yields are djimi'nishinj?. That it pays to feed generously may be gauged from the fact that th« 41 cows in milk averaged £3 4/9 P p V head for the month of June. Not only should heavy milkers receive ample feed, but even those which are soon to be dried off should be maintained in good condition to withstand the rigours of and to fully nourish the unborn calf. Where growing in paddocks reasonably free from stumps, the crop can be cut with a mower, raked up, and handled like any other hay, It cures well and quickly when the weather conditions are "favourable. In some seasons the grass will grow too rapidly for the stock to eaten down, and the farmer Is faced with the alternative of allowing it tQ become coarse and rank or of cutting it. When time allows there should be no doubt as to the action to take, especially when it is realised that the subsequent growth is improved by the cutting.