WINTER FEED

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXV, Issue 23030, 6 May 1938, Page 5

WINTER FEED

ADEQUATE RESERVE NEEDED BY OBSERVER With the production season drawing to a close, a stock-taking of the past season can bo made. It would be well to size lip the result of the year's operation more particularly in regard to the returns from the herd and the feeding methods adopted. What is of particular moment is an estimate of the available stock feed—pasturage, ensilage, bay and supplementary crops—to carry the herd over to the next season. There is little doubt that the biggest weakness in New Zealand dairying is the way the herd is wintered. Over the past decade we have had a marked tendency in the North Island to rely more and more on pasture and its products, silage and liny, as feed sufficient for stock over the whole year. Unfortunately, as all farmers know, pasture varies in productivity from year to year and "all grass" farming calls for a reserve of feed, in hay particularly, which, both in respect to amount and quality, is too little appreciated on many farms. The writer believes thnt any means by whiijh the dairy farmer in the North Island could secure more and better hay, particularly something approaching so-called super hay—half way in quality between hay and dried grass—would make a world of difference to economic dairy farming, especially in the northern areas, and in particular would minimise the present many losses from disease.