Topdressing This Autumn

Northland Age, Volume 5, Issue 24, 13 March 1936, Page 4

Topdressing This Autumn

This Year’s Abundant Growth In this district there is now a greater growth of pasturage than has been the case for many years past—this has made up for the rather backward spring with its subsequent poor production which obtained over a large area of the North Island last year. The luxuriance of grass growth, particularly if it continues for a few weeks, may mask the necessity for providing the dairy land with its annual autumn dressing. As dairyfarmers will realise, the advent of frosts will soon make the grass lose most of its milk-producing qualities and also reduce the quantity available for milking stock. Despite Feed Position, Advisable to Topdress in Autumn A number of the most successful sheepfarmers and dairymen topdress

a considerable portion of their farm every year irrespective of the condition of pasturage. In the dry autumn, when little growth is apparent, topdressing goes on in late February and in March, the fertiliser awaiting the advent of the autumn rains. In an autumn such as at present, a certain percentage of the farm is grazed down, or the mower is used, and the fertiliser is applied. A little thought will reveal the fact that spring, summer, and early autumn growth is making a heavy drain on the pasturage, and if this is to go into the winter in good condition and produce its maximum next spring, it must be kept adequately supplied with the right type of fertiliser. So far as graving land is concerned, it has been amply demonstrated over a large number of years, both by the results secured on farms and by elaborate Government fertiliser experiments, that the autumn is the best time to topdress a large acreage of the pastures on the farm. On most North Island soils root growth does not cease even in the winter, and while top-growth in the form of leafage is not very apparent, the plant is building so as to come early in the following spring and to maintain a good growth over the months following. In the autumn the soil is warm and conditions are favourable for maximum growth. As well as this, the effect of the mineral content of the grass, which is so essential, and which helps to carry stock through the winter with the minimum requirements of supplementary feed. Advantages of Autumn Topdressing On grazing land, autumn applications have been proved essential for highest production on dairy farms. The matter has been well stated by Mr. R. P. Connell, in the New Zealand Journal of Agriculture : “In the main grass-fanning districts, topdressing with phosphates during the February-April period is widely advisable. One of the important advantages of such topdressing is that it usually brings about, prior to the dormant winter period, an appreciable increase in growth which is valuable because it assists not only

in increasing the winter supply of feed, but it also enables stock to enter the winter with additional vigour and condition which stands them in good stead in later critical periods. “A second material advantage of autumn topdressing is that while it stimulates growth in the early spring practically to the same extent as would spring topdressing, it is declining in its effect by the time summer is reached, and so does not cause such a rush of growth as does spring topdressing—a rush which tends to intensify the practical difficulties in effecting satisfactory control of pasture growth in early summer.” There seems to be every evidence for the belief that the autumn topdressing is rather superior to winter, as according to Professor Stapledon,' the noted world authority on grass production, it is better to apply fertiliser when the root growth is fairly active, as in the autumn, lather than in the dormant period of the year when there is a greater danger of the fertiliser applied being locked up in an insoluble form in the soil before the plant can adequately get its full supply. His views on this have beep stated in a recent publication, as follows : “Manures should always be applied when the root systems of the plants are active and when they are not lestrieted. Do not, therefore, apply manures very early in the spring or when pastures are being grazed to excess. The early autumn is an admirable time to apply manures.” Department of Agriculture’s View The Department of Agriculture in its summary of the current position relative to topdressing, says : f • —Over wide areas topdressing reduces substantially the fixed charges attaching to each unit of production. 2. Because of this, in much of that portion of the Dominion in which grass farming is dominant, topdressing may be expected either to make profitable farms more profitable, or to make less profitable ones less unprofitable. While this statement relative to the value of topdressing is generally applicable, it is subject to two important qualifications. One thing is that on injudicious topdressing which gives unsatisfactory results. The other is that in some exceptional instances, occurring especially on land of low carrying capacity, topdressing cannot be recommended. 3. The only way to ensure that topdressing is judicious is to base it on comparable field results. At times, instead of being based on such results, it is based on tradition or on experience gained under essentially diffeient conditions or on unproved assumption in the guise of science. 4. In general, phosphatic topdressing, being of basic importance, should leceive first attention, but occasionally the need of lime or potash or of both may be equally acute.