ON THE LAND

Taranaki Daily News, 7 February 1931, Page 12 (Supplement)

ON THE LAND

THE MOST OUT OF GRASS. TREATING THE HAY PADDOCKS. Closely linked up with the larger question of pasture management is that which is concerned with the treatment of areas that have been cut for hay and ensilage so that these areas may be depended upon to provide a large amount of good autumn grazing. Usually there is a dry spell during the late summer and early autumn, When feed is short and recourse has to be made to other fodder crops, such as turnips or rape, to keep dairy cows from going right off in their milk supplies. Properly handled, the hay and ensilage paddocks can be made to supply all the green feed required up till the arrival of the autumn rains. In the December issue of the Journal of Agriculture Mr. R. P. Connell says: “When hay or ensilage has been saved from a- field it will often respond profitably to a dressing of superphosphate, especially if- the herbage is mown while still somewhat immature, and if the fertiliser is applied as soon as the mown material has been removed. The quick stimulation of growth which can at times be obtained by the use of ■superphosphate in this manner gives a greater aftermath of fresh feed which is particularly valuable in view of the critical stage at which it becomes available —that is, when supplies of fresh grass are apt to be scant.” Mr. A. H. Cockayne is an ardent advocate of early autumn top-dressing, according to an interview which appeared in a recent-issue of the Exporter. Mr. Cockayne said. that " the experimental work carried out had shown clearly that earlier autumn top-dressing was desirable and would in fact be more profitable in giving increased growth at a time when production tended to fall off fairly heavily. During a period of exceptionally heavy growth, such as was often experienced during late November and December, it was sometimes difficult to have the paddock sufficiently short to give an effective dressing, but the use of superphosphate on the aftermath of hay and ensilage paddocks, gave an immediate response and with suitable weather conditions, a rapid growth of succulent feed. It looks as though the latter half of this dairying season is going to be more profitable than was the first half, and if farmers would keep up production through the autumn they would be well advised to act on the advice to treat the hay and ensilage paddocks with about 2J to 3 cwt. per acre of super right away. '

GENTLENESS IN MILKING.

FACTORS THAT AFFECT YIELD.

Some cows ate harder to milk, than others. Some are so free, in fact, that when the udder becomes full the milk tends to drip from the teats.. This occurs most frequently while the cows are walking at pasture, or on the road; but it will also occur while the covr is standing still, if the udder is greatly distended. 7 -Such cows must be milked three times a day, to save the milk. "While the milk will drip from the teats under pressure of a stocked udder, the cow has no power to make the milk flow voluntarily, though she can control .the secretion of milk, or withhold it, if excited, ill-used, or not on the best of terms with the milker. This faculty which a cow has for holding back her milk is, in fact, controlled by the nervous system of the cow. ■ That being so, milking should always be done quietly, and the cow treated kindly. Rough treatment will certainly reduce the flow ,of milk. Hence young cows are sometimes liable to be ruined, as milkers, through harsh treatment and injudicious, inexpert handling. Possibly, the milking niaid who sings as she milks, or the plough-boy who whistles cheerily as he steers his team adown the field, does so from, the fullness of the heart when the toil is congenial, and without a thought of the influence the rustic tune or ditty has upon the animals under their hand, says an. English dairy expert. But it is an established fact, nevertheless, that if the cow is pleased and contented, gently handled, and spoken to kindly, she will yield the more milk. A good milker always gets more milk from the cow than a careless, harsh and ill-natured milker. It pays, therefore, to treat the cows well. Though the quantity of milk yielded by, a cow depends, in the first case, on her natural milk-producing qualities, her general treatment, milking and feeding are equally important factors. ' In the case of heifers with their first calf the practice of milking them three times daily favourably influences their milking qualities. Though it is customary to .let heifers suckle their calves on farms, and holdings where young stock are reared, it is better to let the young cows be accustomed to hand-milking from the outset, if they are to make good dairy cows.

UTILISING HERBAGE.

VALUE ( OF MIXED GRAZING.

Experiments at-Cockle Park, England, in which the effects of manures on pasture are measured by the live-weight increase of the grazing stock, have shown that there is a much better utilisation of herbage by cattle and sheep together thap by grazing sheep alone. Liveweight increases over a period of years have been approximately twice as great under the first system as under the second.

Grazing experiments so far reported from Cockle Park have been concerned principally with sheep alone, so that the results of a mixed grating trial, carried out by the Leicestershire Agricultural Education Committee as part of the research scheme of the Royal Agricultural Society, should be of special interest. The soil on which the trial was conducted comprised boulder clay at an elevation of 400 ft., and when taken over was in a poor and badly-grazed condition. In 1923 five 10-acre plots I were put down, and after a year devoted to a uniformity trial, various phosphate manures were applied, and a six-year mixed grazing programme instituted. It was found that basic slag (30 per cent, phosphate) applied at the rate of 13 cwt. to the acre, gave the most successful result, there apparently being a slight advantage in giving this amount in two dressings of 6$ cwt. three years apart, instead of applying the whole in the initial dressing. Finely-ground North African phosphate, given in one dressing at the rate of 6| cwt. to the acre was found to be less effective than basic slag, while the feeding of cotton cake to stock on plots which received half the standard dressing of slag gave no cash gain above that produced by the full dressing of slag alone. A noteworthy feature was that systematic grazing and surface cultivation worked a considerable improvement in the herbage apart from manuring.

SODIUM CHLORATE SPRAY.

EFFECTS ON STOCK.

The fact that sodium chlorate is recommended as a weed poison lends interest to tests recently carried out at Glenfield Veterinary Research Station, New

South Wales, to obtain information as to its toxicity for stock. Owing to'its salty taste sodium chlorate appears to be attractive to. animals, and it is considered possible that some might lick or consume vegitation solely with a view to satisfying this craving. Thus they would gather more of the substance* than would be the case if they were merely grazing normally on sprayed weeds.

Sodium chlorate, mixed with bone meal, was fed to a penned steer in the form of a lick. It took the preparation readily, but soon developed a severe type ef jaundice. By the time 9|oz. had been consumed at the rate of two-thirds of an ounce per day, the animal was destroyed. In the case of sheep single doses were administered, and it was found that 2oz. tc 3oz. produced fatal effects. The tests show that sodium chlorate in sufficient quantities is undoubtedly poisonous to stock. As, however, it is usually sprayed in a 10 per cent, solution, and then only lightly, it seems doubtful if sheep or cattle could get enough from poisoned weeds to do harm. The 'greatest risk, seems to be in stock getting at bags of the poison or drinking unused spray. . Sodium chlorate should not be used in licks. ECONOMY OF STOCK FOOD. PASTURE THE CHEAPEST. According to surveys by the United States Department of Agriculture tho. cheapest feed which can be produced on the farm is with pastures. The 1923. United States Agriculture Year Book gives figures compiled from- eeven different States showing that the feed cost of the pasture crops to dairy cows was 14.1 per cent, of the total cost of the ■ feed, and that its value was 29;6 per cent, of the total value of the feed. Quoting further: “In the seven districts where studies were made concerning requirements for the production of market milk, pasturage furnished nearly one-third of the total feed for the cows. The pasture cost' was one-seventh of the total feed cost.” In both instances one dollar invested in pastures was worth more than two dollars invested in other crops. The low cost of feed produced with pastures is largely the result of the low labour cost in maintaining good pastures. This is a great factor in the solution of two problems—the economical production of feeds and scarcity of farm labour.

Dr. White, of Philadelphia, recently discovered through a survey in Pennsylvania that the labour costs to maintain an acre, of pasture is 70 cents a year, as compared with a ■ labour cost of 14.90 dollars per acre in the production of hay and grain in a.rotation of corn, oats, wheat and clover. To produce a-ton of digestible nutrients in such a grain rotation involved a labour cost of 1'5.74 dollars, while on a pasture? the labour charge per ton was less than 65 cents. , FERTILISER EFFECTS. INCREASING FOOD PLANTS. Opening a discussion on the influence of fertilisers on the yield and composition of plants before the British Association, Sir John Russell, said that the primary effect ,of a fertiliser. on the plant is to increase the uptake of the particular nutrient thus supplied and consequently increase its amount in the plant tissues. ' The rule is general and applies to any soluble salt added to the medium in which a plant is growing. Up to a certain point the uptake is proportional to' th© amount supplied; beyond that it falls off. The. additional nutrient may cause • an increase in growth, but not-a strictly proportional increase. For 'small increments of the nutrient, the growth may be less than proportional, and for larger increments it is again less than proportional, and beyond a certain point ceases altogether.' The curve, is sigmoid, but it may be nearly logarithmic. In consequence, the first increment of added fertiliser to a crop insufficiently supplied with the ; particular nutrient may cause an increase in the amount of the nutrient ion in the plant without correspondingly increasing the amount of-growth. The- percentage of the ion in the dry matter of the plant: therefore increases. Further increments of! the fertiliser may cause an increase in growth proportional to the added fertiliser, so that there is no change in. the percentage of-the nutrient ion in the dry matter. Still further increments cause little or no further growth; the effect on-composition depends on whe-ther-uptake o,f ■ the. nutrient ion still continues. Uptake, of nitrogen and of potassium goes further than that of phosphorus. Instances are given showing how dressings of phosphatic fertiliser to soils deficient in phosphate increase the phosphorus content of . the crop, ;'but when larger quantities of phosphate are present in the soil, dressings of phosphatic fertiliser cause no further increase. . Dressings of nitrogenous fertiliser, however, ’ continue to increase, the nitrogen . content of the crop.

TOP-DRESSING RESULTS.

CANTERBURY EXPERIMENTS.

During the last few years new methods have been worked out for topdressing experiments and observational treatment, rather than the careful weighing of hay,- etc., is used to see exactly what responses are secured from the different fertilisers. ' By this means a . very much larger number of experiments can be carried out in the same time, and in Canterbury recently over 200 of these have been under way, the areas being scattered all over the district.

Treatments given included dressings of lime, superphosphate, potash and sulphate of ammonia, and as the plots in each case were arranged in squares, certain of them received lime plus super, others lime, plus super, plus nitrogen, etc. In® the main, Che dressings of superphosphate were given during the autumn, while those of sulphate of ammonia were spread throughout the season, 3cwt. being given altogether, in three dressings of lewt. each. It was found that the poor quality of much of the ryegrass led to the response being poorer than it should have been in some instances, thus indicating the need for careful selection of seed for the sowing down of pastures. Recognition of the value of lime from the viewpoint of health of stock has ■been growing steadily during recent years owing to the research work in other countries, which has definitely linked shortage of lime with liability to disease. There are still many thousands of New Zealand farmers who consider that sufficient lime is applied in basic slag and superphosphate and these men never purchase carbonate of lime. The fact that lime is costly to land on farms in jnany parts of the North Island also militates against its increased use. The experiments with which we are dealing established the fundamental importance of lime on Canterbury soils and there is no reason to suppose that results elsewhere would be very differ-

ent. It was'found that almost without exception the combination of lime plus superphosphate gave better results than superphosphate used alone. Even where used alone, lime gave increased growth in many cases and those in charge of the experiments were satisfied that both from' the production viewpoint and from, that of benefit to health of stock the application of lime was justified. .Moreover, they considered that the visible effect's of lime on the pastures there varied from five to six years where a ton of carbonate of lime was applied. Such a result at once discounts the idea that lime is too expensive to use. Bought in fairly considerable quantities so 1 that full advantage may be taken of the. railway concessions, it is an-in-vestment of the greatest possible value. The experiments demonstrated the superiority of superphosphate under Canterbury conditions and in this respect are in line with practically the whole of the experimental work carried out in New Zealand. The principal requirement of New Zealand soils is phosphate, and under a very wide range of climatic and soil conditions superphosphate has given highly satisfactory results, leading to the conclusion that it is the cheapest fertiliser when results are taken into consideration.

In these particular trials no attempt was made at comparing superphosphate with other, phosphatic fertilisers such as basic slag and the ground rock phosphates, but such comparisons have been made in the past, and in the majority of instances have been in favour of the super. Basic slag is, of course, excellent under certain conditions such as on clayey soils, but with high transportation costs to pay it can hardly be expected that the ground rock phosphates will give results comparable with a highly soluble fertiliser such as super. In other words, it is practically certain that every £1 spent on a highly soluble fertiliser such as super will give a greater return to increased profits from pastures than every £1 spent on ground rock phosphates, even where the latter are very finely ground and of fair solubility,