Pasture Management

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 508, 10 November 1928, Page 27

Pasture Management

Results of English Research

Wi.lll fainting being placed more and more upon a scientific basis, fhe results of research workers are followed with close attention by all progressive men on the land. Xot the least important at the moment are the experiments being carried out in England in connection with grass land management.

A new system of grassland management, which was first adopted In Germany, has been successfully applied to over 1,000 acres in the British Isles in 1927. Briefly the system consists of the subdivision of the pasture lands into small grazing areas, stimulating the growth of grass by application of fertilisers, in which nitrogenous manures play an important part, and heavy rotational grazing so that the stock are continuously feeding upon young, nutritious herbage. The results of British experiments clearly demonstrate that the application of nitrogen in the early part ot the year provides grazing at an earlier date than is normally the case, in some instances grass has been obtained as much as six weeks earlier than before. This is of the greatest importance on stock farms, and the shortening of the period of winter feeding must have a great economic effect. Even oil hill sheep farms, where the new system cannot be applied in its entirety, a dressing of nitrogen on some of the land to ensure early feed for the ewes is a sound proposition. It must be emphasised that where nitrogen is used the necessary balance of phosphates and potash must be maintained. In all the trials the stock-carrying capacity of the land has been greatly increased, and this has been more marked where the land has been poor, and the grass of low feeding value. The trials show that an enormous output can be obtained from grassland when properly treated. In one Instance a live-weight gain of 6Jcwt. to the acre has been obtained. On another farm the amount ot' milk produced to the acre was 710 gallons. The increased stock feeding power of intensively treated pasture may be due to the improvement in the duality ot the pasture, and also to the increase in quantity. It has been shbwn by Woodman at Cambridge that the herbage of untreated pasture both on light and heavy land Is of high feeding value, as judged by its chemical composition, provided it is never allowed to grow more than a few inches high. His analyses show that young grass at this stage has a composition on the dry matter basis, very similar to a concentrated food, such as linseed cake, aud vastly superior to meadow hay. Thus the dry matter in meadow hay contains 12 per cent, crude protein, and 31 per cent, starch equivalent. Young pasture grass has 25 per cent, protein and 6S per cent, starch; linseed cake 28 per cent, protein and 73 per cent, starch. Young grass Is thus, obviously of much greater feeding value weight for

weight of dry matter than grass which is allowed to grow to the stage of hay. This gives a chemical explanation for the importance of close grazing, which ensures that the herbage is always eaten in its youngest and most nutritious condition. Work has not been carried far enough to give actual data of the relative amounts of herbage produced by closely-grazed pasture, with and without manuring, but that the quality of the herbage has been maintained has been proved by the analyses of samples of grass taken from actual field trials. One of the most valuable features of this new system of pasture management is the high nutritive quality of the herbage. Approximately 75 per cent, of the constituents are digestible in short growing grass, and such grass Is capable ot maintaining a cow in profit throughout the season, but the protein content would be higher than Is required for milk production. Any additional foods supplied should preferably be rich in starch.

The possibilities in this new pasture management for dairymen would appear to be cousiderable. It the stock-carrying capacity of the land can be increased —in British experiments it has been doubled —and at the same time a protein-rich, natural food can be produced, it would result in a very large increase in production, with a great saving in cost, for protein foods are the most expensive to purchase.