PASTURE TRIALS IN NELSON DISTRICT

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXII, 25 November 1938, Page 8

PASTURE TRIALS IN NELSON DISTRICT

“The profound significance of the grass-carpet of the earth comes out most clearly when we realise the enormous amounts of energy daily stored up in the countless myriads of green blades as they fix their carbon. By decomposing the carbon-dioxide of the air in their chlorophyll apparatus by the radiant energy of the sun, they build up starches and sugars and other plant substances, which are

then consumed and turned into flesh by our cattle and sheep and other herbivorous animals, and so furnish us with food. The whol% theory of agriculture turns on this pivot.’’—H. Marshall Ward, in “Grasses,” 1908. “We have in New Zealand nearly 18 million acres of sown grassland, of which 13 million or 14 million acres were originally forest, scrub, and fern, the rest being derived from swamp and tussock. On this area are produced each year over 80 million tons of grass, which in turn is elaborated into 300.000 tons of meat, 120,000 tons of butter, 100.000 tons of cheese, and over 100.000 tons of wool, say,

600.000 tons of food and clothing, or some 301 b or 401 b of saleable material per acre.”—A. H. Cockayne, in “The Banks Lecture,” 1933. The necessity for the co-ordina-tion of grassland research with animal husbandry was emphasised by Mr A .H. Cockayne, Director-Gene-ral of Agriculture, in the course of an address at the opening of the new building of the Grasslands Division of the Plant Research Bureau at Palmerston North in April last. In the course of his remarks Mr ■ Cockayne said that 34 years ago he en- ] tered the Department of Agriculture to take charge of the department’s biolo- [ gical laboratory. It was housed in a single room, 16 feet by 12, the salary of its staff of one was £175 a year, and £ 100 a year allowed for its maintenance. It had grown into a scientific organisation of five divisions—grasslands, agronomy, botany, plant diseases, and entymology—with a staff of 85 and an expenditure of more than £33,000 per annum. The speaker said he was intimately connected with the Plant Research Station, until two years ago, when the Plant Research Bureau, under the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, was established, and the organisation built up from the old biological laboratory of the Department of Agriculture was merged into that bureau, of which, as chairman, he still retained more than a passing interest. BACKBONE OF NEW ZEALAND “The actual expenditure of the Grasslands Division,” Mr Cockayne continued. “amounts to a little more than £IO.OOO, and at first sight it might be thought that research in grassland would be adequately catered for. and the achievement was one for reasonable pride. But is it? Farming is often | termed the backbone of New Zealand. That may or may not be true—l do not know —but what I do know is that grassland is not only the backbone but also the flesh and blood of New Zealand farming. It brings into being more than £60,000,000 worth of production annually, and completely dominates our international livelihood. “In the wheat industry, for every pound’s worth of production id is spent, a total of about £SOOO. One halfpenny for every pound's worth of grasslands production would mean £120,000 per annum. The capacity for wheat extension in New Zealand is limited, i and even a doubling of production, which is extremely unlikely, would add only another two or three million pounds. A doubling of grassland production would add 30 times that amount, namely, £60.000.000. Such doubling on a reducing cost of production basis can 1 be made practically possible only by 1 scientific research. MANY PROBLEMS ( < "Problems in grassland farming we < have in plenty, and although we are ] proud—perhaps rightly so of our grass- 5 land farming in comparison with that in other countries, it is in the economic v solution of these problems that our fu- < ture lies. In our actual grassland work f pertinent to soils of high fertility or t potentially so, we are in fair shape. On c this type of land top-dressing, strain de- s ■velopment of high producing grasses 1 and clovers, and actual grassland man- r agement, are achieving profitable re- t suits, but in the maintenance and impiovement of our more difficult grassland, the tussock areas and much lowgrade hill country, the position is far fiom satisfactory. “Perhaps the most serious aspect so far as grassland is concerned is the lag that Jjas taken place in the proper coordination of research from the animal distinct from the pasture as- v

GRASS IS WORLD’S MOST VALUABLE PLANT

Its Value In New Zealand X _ MORE THAN £60,000,000 WORTH OF PRODUCTION ANNUALLY “ALL FLESH IS GRASS” On various farms in the Nelson district the Department of Agriculture is conducting grassland experiments for the purpose of testing out the value of certain pasture grasses. These trials arc being carried out on various soil types. Good pasture requires suitable manurial treatment and this work is being carried out along with trials of the best grasses. This is a continuation in an interesting and practical form of the work of the Grasslands Division of the Plant Research Bureau at Palmerston North. Mr D. Merry, M.Agr.Sc., Instructor in Agriculture for the Nelson district, is carrying out the Department’s work in the Nelson district. An “Evening Mail” representative visited the trials on Mr C. A. Newport's property at Braeburn and a brief description of the results so far ascertained will be of interest. Mr Newport is one of Nelson’s progressive farmers. Before these actual trials are described It may prove helpful to give a few striking quotations indicative of the importance of New Zealand’s pasture lands.

pect. And here I want to say that if we are going to develop full utilisation of our present and future grasslands, it is research into grassland farming in its entirety, where the soil, the plant, the animal and the farmer are all taken into consideration, that must be developed.”