SHEEP AND WOOL. GRASS LAND MANAGEMENT.

Otago Witness, Issue 3912, 5 March 1929, Page 12

SHEEP AND WOOL.

GRASS LAND MANAGEMENT.

Although the wool sale season for 1928-29 has not yet finished, we have sold sufficient Dominion wool to learn something of its main features as they appear to the buyers. The growing of wool is nowadays viewed very differently from what it was before the frozen meat trade was initiated. In 1882 some 8839 meat carcasses were landed in Great Britain. In. less than ten years this Dominion was exporting over 1,000,000 carcasses, and nowadays New Zealand consigns some 7,000,000 meat carcasses annually—a huge increase it will be admitted. During this period our wool clip has changed in type and* character, due directly to the influence of the frozen meat trade. The merino sheep have dwindled in number, and the British breeds and crossbreds have made immense headway, while the New Zealand Ccrriedale, owing to the demand abroad for both wool and meat, has come into its own. The get-up of the wool offered at local auctions has vastly improved of late years, due in great measure to the efforts of some of the agricultural and pastoral societies holding competitive wool classes during the year. By this method of instruction many young men in the South Island have been taught the importance of grading wool before offer-

ing it for sale. Generally the larger clips ar e well prepared for the market, while the amou'nt of wool re-classed in store and the system of binning of small clips to make large and well-graded lots, has grown apace in late years. The position, however, in the north of the North Island in regard to the get-up of many lots of wool has evoked the free I comment of buyers with reference to the lack of attention paid to the skirting and classing of wool. The recent sale at Auckland was admittedly a good one, but evidently some of the wool" offered lacked general competition owing to the manner in which it was submitted. The importance of every care being taken in classing wool cannot be over-stressed. Possibly there is no perfection achieved in classing, but buyers are entitled to have an article true to description. Our problem is small compared with that of Australia, but we cannot afford to be careless.- “The wool clip of Australia is worth from £50,000,000 odd to £60,000,000 each year; hut many millions are lost annually through faulty classing.” This statement was made (says the Adelaide Observer) last January by t Mr Spencer Williams, formerly the South Australian Government’s wool instructor, but now Adelaide wool expert for Goldsbrough, Mort, Ltd. “It is a rare thing,” said Mr Williams to a representative of the Register, “to see a perfectly classed clip come on to the market. Wool experts and buyers are constantly noting faulty preparations, criticising defects, and making suggestions for improvement; ; but still we are losing money. In the past, he added, a good deal had been said and written on this subject. During the past 30 years, the training of wool classes had commanded a fair measure Pf success, resulting in the improvement of the get-up of many clips. Nevertheless, there was still much more to, be done before the highest standard was reached. Indeed, it is doubtful whether any effective remedy can be found,” and here Mr Williams was most emphatic, “ unless pastoralists themselves awaken to the realisation of the truth, that practically the whole fault lies with themselves and not with the classera they employ.” Many of the sheds had been built in the early days, when comparatively slow hand-shearing was the Vogue, and when the requirements of the trade did not demand such a good getup of clip as they did to-day. The «heep phorn to-day were cutting pounds more ■ wool than those of years ago. Asa eon-

sequence of all this the old-time provision for handling the fleeces did not meet the requirements for speedy classification into correct grades. Extra facilities in the wool shed for classing and binning would tend to better work, provided that trained wool students were available and more labour engaged. “ Growers may ask,” says Mr Williams, “ Can the expense be justified ? ” The answer to that is found in the fact that last year 277 bales of a so-called well-classed clip were re-classed to suit present requirements, and were offered and sold with the remaining 900 bales of the clip as classed on the station. The result was that the re-classed wool brought £3 a bale net profit more to the grower. After this revelation the grower concerned at once remodelled his shed at a small cost, and he has employed five extra wool hands this season. The extra expenditure was a fleabite compared with the additional value realised by the clip. Pastoralists generally will be wise to give serious attention to this matter. Their harvest comes but once a year, and every effort should be made to get the fullest advantage from proper classification of the clip and its sale at its true value.

Increased attention is being given to the discussion of the management and improvement of pastures. It is a subject in which farmers take a lively interest, and naturally so. Increase in agricultural output is not entirely a matter of the plough, as is sometimes assumed, and the success of farming in New Zealand must, by the nature of things, turn largely upon the management of our large area of grass land. The neglect of our pastures must tend to reduction in their quantity and quality. In the course of years thousands of tons of valuable minerals have walked off our grazing areas in the form of mutton, lamb, wool, and dairy produce, and but little has been returned. Cheap fertilisers are essential, and their use is practical upon areas within reasonable distance of the railways, while there are great possibilities in feeding suitable mineral licks to sheep. Just as stock, fed intensively, improved the pastures, so could sheep improve the pasture if minerals were fed. It is, no doubt, slow, but it is effective and cumulative.

It is a truism to say: “ Feed your soil with the necessary elements for plant life, then wealth will pile up in more and better grasses, grain, wool, butter, fruit, beef, and mutton.” The difficulty is to decide which of the many soil elements healthy plant life requires in order to forge ahead. It is generally recognised that the principle of complete dressings of artificial manures—nitrogen, phosphates, and potash—has been vindicated and that a considerable increase of production from grass land can be obtained. Certain matters have, however, to be worked out in practice before the principle can be embodied in a system that is assured of complete success. Unfortunately, the supply of the best of all manures—farmyard manures— 7 is not available in quantity, and we necessarily do not readily buy a “ complete ” artificial fertiliser owing to its high relative cost and the probability that we may be purchasing an expensive fertility element which is available in the soil already. The consequence is that an endeavour is made to hit upon the fertility constituent that is lacking in the soil, and top-dressing may be with a nitrogenous, phosphatic, or potash manure. In the final analysis it comes to this: The farmer should, while taking note of the experimental manuring of grass lands in his neighbourhood, carry out tests for himself. There is a great demand for phosphatic fertilisers to-day, and rightly so in view of the tons of phosphorus sent out of the country in the form of meat, wool, etc., but that is not sufficient reason why potash manures should be ignored, nor why nitrogen or lime should be deemed unnecessary. Experiment alone will determine the correct fertiliser to use on any particular grazing area. There are many questions to be answered in connection with the . best system, of grass land treatment, and local conditions alone can determine the nature of, she fertiliser used and the method. ,

Nearly the whole of the pastures throughout the Dominion respond to dressings of phosphatic manures, indicating, therefore, a deficiency in the soil of available phosphates. Super-phosphate-dressed pastures invariably attract the live stock, and we find the herbage closely eaten down in contrast with -near-by areas apparently well provided with similar-looking feed. The reason is, no doubt, that the treated area is more palatable and provides the necessary minerals. It is . not, however, always feasible to top-dress, but suitable “ licks ” might be provided for live stipek. Palatable licks, combining the health-giving elements lacking in the feed, might prove useful, such, for instance, as one containing phosphates, salt, and lime, with possibly some iron and iodine added. There are some licks on the market, and it is believed that without exception they contain a fair proportion of phosphates, but the direct feeding of suitable licks to stock has not received a great deal of attention. The problems arising out of animal nutrition are engaging attention the

world over, and it will be readily conceived that they have a particular significance in New Zealand, where so much depends upon the health and vigour of the live stock. It is absolutely essential that we should give back to the soil what we are taking out of it and inaugurate a system of supplying directly to the animal a mineral ration in the shape of a lick which will give it health and power to resist disease. The Ministry of Agriculture for Northern Ireland in this connection has a note of interest to farmers overseas. The feeding of minerals to stock in this country, we read, is being handled with optimism. There can be little doubt that the feeding of suitable minerals to stock is an important factor, in their nutrition which has been largely overlooked in the past, and evidence points to the conclusion that many of the breeding and rearing difficulties experienced with cattle and pigs are partly, and perhaps mainly, due to the inadequate supply of minerals in the usual farm rations. Heavy producers, such as the dairy cow and the breeding sow, require considerable quantities of suitable minerals in order to maintain their constitution during the period of heavy production. The most important minerals required ■ by farm animals are phosphate of lime, chalk or ground limestone, salt, and, in much smaller quantities, sulphur (in the form of flowers of sulphur) and iron oxide.