TRIALS OF NEW ZEALAND PASTURE MIXTURES BEING UNDERTAKEN IN AMERICA

Otago Daily Times, Issue 27514, 7 October 1950, Page 4

TRIALS OF NEW ZEALAND PASTURE MIXTURES BEING UNDERTAKEN IN AMERICA

THE FARM

“ There is an awakening interest in grass as a crop in America, and if some of your New Zealand strains, particularly of white clover, perform in the United States as they do here, I think they will make a place for themselves in American grassland farming,” said Mr Meade Foster, Agricultural Attache at the American Embassy in Wellington, on his return to New Zealand recently. Mr Foster, who was in America at the time on furlough, accompanied Mr Ft. B. Tennent, Assistant Directorgeneral of Agriculture, on the United States part of his recent trip to Canada and America for the purpose of establishing trials of New Zealand pasture mixtures at State agricultural experimental stations in the two countries.

Mr Foster said the increasing interest in grassland farming was marked even since his previous visit. “The people are searching for something. America has always bought a lot of seed from New Zealand. Knowledge of the wonderful production you get from your grassland is spreading, and visits such as that of Mr Tennent are stimulating interest in your management methods as well as in your seeds. Mr Tennent was exceptionally well received by agricultural, scientific and experimental staffs at the stations, and there was tremendous interest in the scheme to establish pastures with New Zealand seeds mixtures.” The seeds mixtures supplied by New Zealand will be given every chance in Amerca to prove their worth. New Zealand Department of Agriculture recommendations for pre-cultivation, sowing, grazing management, and top-dressing will be followed. All stations sowing down trials have promised to furnish reports to New Zealand. Most agricultural extension work in America is conducted by State agri-

cultural extension services and experimental results of the New Zealand pasture trials will thus be carried directly to American farmers. “If the results offer advantages to the American farmer he in turn will demand your seed,” said Mr Foster. “ This seems to me to be the proper approach to closer agricultural relations between our two countries. We have information through one Federal source that New Zealand short-rotation ryegrass is already doing well in the southern States.” Mr Foster stressed the influence the wide climatic range of American States might have on the performance of New Zealand pastqre strains. The trials that have been established are the most reliable means of determining the potentialities of New Zealand pasture constituents and methods of management. If they are a success in the North American Continent the result will undoubtedly be an increase in the seed trade between the two countries.