Field Day Held To Demonstrate Value Of Farm Irrigation

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26981, 17 January 1949, Page 3

Field Day Held To Demonstrate Value Of Farm Irrigation

An interesting and instructive day was spent by many town and country people on Saturday at the North Otago Progress League’s experimental irrigation farm at Awamoko, during the course of which short lectures and demonstrations were given by Lincoln College experts and the benefits of irrigation in a diy season were made clearly apparent. The crowd was taken to the various vantage points on the farm to see the pastures and stock, the carrying capacity of the farm having been increased by irrigation from one sheep to nearly four sheep to the acre. /

The organisers, Messrs A. C. Hurst (chairman of directors), L. J. Smith (director), and C. C. Gillies (acting secretary), were warmly congratulated on the resuit of their efforts. Among those present were the Mayor of Oamaru (Mr M. F. E. Cooney), Mr A. R. Tait (chairman of the North Otago Progress League), Mr A. McMillan (chairman of the Oamaru Harbour Board and president of Federated Farmers), and Messrs L. W. McCaskill, R. H. Bevan, W, Stafford, and Flay (Lincoln College), and T. A. Selwood and Graham (Department of Agriculture). There were 30 candidates for the pasture judging competitions, which were based on density of sward, control, percentages of good grasses and clovers, balance of grasses and clovers, freedom from poor grasses and clovers, and freedom from weeds. The awards were:—Blair Gardiner (Awamoa), 176 points (total 200), 1: D. V. McSweeney (Lincoln College), 170, 2; S. A. Cradock (Lincoln College). 166. 3: and E. M. Ruddenklau (Five Forks) and J. Cuthbertson (Waitaki), 164 (equal) 4. For the second test of awarding points for the grasses and clovers in a well-balanced pasture, the Lincoln College candidates were ruled out, and the awards were: A. M. Ruddenklau (Five Forks 1 and E. M. Ruddenklau (Five Forks) 2. The awards for the boys’ and girls’ clasification and identification of grasses and weeds competition were announced by Mr Selwood as follows:—G. Cuthbertson (Waitaki), collected 56 with 50 correct/ 1: Peter McCaw (Hakataramea), 48 — 44, 2: and Fairlie Roberts (Papakaio), 45 29, 3. There were six entries. Instructive talks were given by the Lincoln College representatives. Mr McCaskill dealing at some length with land settlement for young farmers, and farm training for country youths and city boys who wished to go into the country: Mr Bevan with pastures and meat production on light lands: and Mr Stafford with- irrigation.. , , ;l Mr Bevan dealt in detail with the seedings of the farm pastures, and pointed

out that in the one there was apparently not sufficient Timothy sown to contribute to the sward, which had been rather overgrazed, and the other seeding with perennial rye, dogstail. Timothy, cocksfoot, white and red clover had been under-grazed. He dealt at length with the agreement with Britain for meat and butter at fixed prices for seven years, and with the development of farming in Canterbury, and said they had now reached the stage in the South Island when, they were not producing sufficient from the light land plains. They had exploited the land’s fertility for years and the land had reverted to tftie brown top and sweet vernal stage. From experiments at Ashley Dean they had attempted to get pastures that would withstand the two menaces of drought, and grass grub. ■ and found that subterranean clover gradually built up the fertility of the farm to more than double the carrying capacity. A good deal of light land could be built up to higher production by the dry land method of using subterranean clover. The other method was the use of water, which they were given an excellent opportunity of seeing that dry. • Mr Stafford spoke on irrigation and good management, which he said were worth while. Plant growth depended ,on moisture and nitrogen, and if moisture was not available growth slowed down. He commented that the supply of water at the farm was not sufficient and resulted in over-irrigation in some parts and under-irrigation in others. It was desirable to flood the land quickly, but what was a novelty to-day would become commonplace in the future, and he strongly stressed the increase in production that would follow irrigation of light lands.

Mr Hurst briefly outlined the history of the Progress League's farm company, which was non-profit making, any profit showing at the end of 1950 going to the Progress League. The directors and the