RENOVATING PASTURES

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume LXXIII, 11 January 1940, Page 8

RENOVATING PASTURES

N.S.W. METHODS VALUE OF GRASS HARROW “Early in the New Year it will be necessary for dairyfarmers to formulate plans which will include the renovation of their paspalum areas prior to applying fertilisers,” states the chief agrostologist of New South Wales, Mr J. N. Whittet. “Once this scheme of operations is completed regular working of the paddocks with a heavy grass harrow, which will penetrate the surface soil and spread animal droppings, is most essential. .Too frequently,” said Mr Whittet, “this section of the mechanical treatment of grassland areas is neglected; where harrowing is not carried out regularly, much grass is spoilt and unpalatable tussocks develop. “Droppings are always heaviest in night paddocks and one of the surest means of building up the fertility of a poor area is to use it as a night paddock for an extended period and to harrow in the manure regularly. “Additional advantages to be gained from harrowing pastures lie in the collection and removal of dead trash and the creation of a light, surface soil mulch ” SOD-BOUND PASPALUM Regarding the matter of drastic renovation of sod-bound paspalum pastures, Mr Whittet considered that the mouldboard plough was still the best implement to use wherever it could be worked; progressive dairyfarmers aimed at turning over a paddock every five or six years during March or April. On other areas, which could not be ploughed, special types of stump-jump paspalum cultivators were in use. Many of the failures to obtain a satisfactory response to fertilisers on pastures, particularly on sod-bound paspalum areas, were due to the paddocks being in an unsuitable condition to produce results, Mr Whittet explained. “The first essential operation is to mow any trash off the paddocks. Unless this is done renovating cultivators will riot do effective work. By regularly grass harrowing, say twice a month from now until the middle of March, much of this trash wil lbe cleared out of the pasture sward and thus save a considerable amount of work during the busy autumn renovation and top-dressing period. SUBDIVISION OF PADDOCKS “To further assist grassland improvement in coastal areas more subdivision of existing paddocks is essential, so that an efficient system of rotational grazing may be practised. The prevailing plan of having a small number of large paddocks does not permit of any part of the farm being rested from time to time, nor does it encourage the best features of the pasture. Rather does it result in a superabundance of feed at one time and a shortage at another. With numerous small paddocks the cattle can be changed from one to another, and short fresh feed ensured at most

times of the year. Long rank growth is unpalatable and innutritious to dairy cattle. A special feature of the smaller paddocks lies in the fact that food wastage caused by unnecessary tramping is prevented

In coastal pastures, white clover, one of the very few plants capable of existing in association with paspalum, can be encouraged if the pasture is kept sort by rotational grazing.

“Dairy farmers have little time at their disposal for farm operations between milking periods,” concluded Mr Whittet, “and here again small paddocks would be an advantage, because such areas can be worked over rapidly with the grass harrow.”

SOIL EROSION NEW ANGLE OF STUDY "THE RAPE OF THE EARTH” The problem of soil erosion is dealt with from a new angle in “The Rape of the Earth,” in which G. V. Jacks and R. O. White, two Cambridge scientists, reveal tlie ravages of man’s “industry.” It is a study of soil depletion and soil deterioration —deserts on the march—throughout the world in which is told how man has turned at least six hundred and forty million acres of what was once fertile land into desert, and is busy destroying more millions of acres. The authors hold that the drastic curtailment, through economic nationalism policies, of overseas markets for imported agricultural products may prove a blessing in disguise by giving an opportunity to rebuild the exhausted earth in Canada. Australia, Argentine, New Zealand and South Africa. European men have learned only how to cultivate European soils in a European climate. The general principles and methods of land management that had been found eminently suitable for European conditions were the only ones fully understood by the colonising peoples, and the application of these methods to areas with different climatic and soil conditions have worked havoc and incalculable loss to the exploited areas in the newer countries.