DAIRYING PASTURES

Taranaki Daily News, 11 September 1934, Page 22 (Supplement)

DAIRYING PASTURES

IMPORTANCE TO INDUSTRY SOURCE OF MOST PRODUCE. TARANAKI'S POTENTIALITIES. (By J. M. Smith, Fields Supervisor, Department of Agriculture) If one were asked to name the most important factor in our dairy farming in ■ Taranaki one would unhesitatingly say our pasture lands. A casual survey of a dairying lands would indicate that, at least 90% of the farms are in grass, and it would be a conservative estimate to say that 80% of our dairy produce- comes from grass. It is also an acknowledged fact that it is from grass that dairy produce can be most economically produced. With this knowledge it is no wonder that we consider our grasslands of so much importance, and devote so much time and money to their well being. It is only during comparatively recent years, however, that this! recognition has taken place, for it is not so very long ago that the pastures were the Cinderella of the dairy farm. Nature in her kindly way covered the bare places of the soil with vegetation, which in many cases -was grass, and this grass just grew and we accepted it as it was given to us. Gradually, however, a recognition of its worth was made and with its recognition and the subsequent attention to pasture work definite progress was made, which progress coincided with the progress in the dairying industry. It would therefore be no myth to say that as pasture work progressed so’ did our great dairying industry progress, the one being the outcome of the other. In Taranaki we have a soil and climate which is admirably suited to the establishment and successful maintainence of a high production dairying sward.. Our soil is by no means a fertile one in its natural condition, nor is it a heavy one, but by artificial means can be brought about conditions suitable to the establishment of a first-class pasture. Given an ample rainfall and a well drained soil there must be something radically, wrong if a first-class-sward cannot be ultimately obtained. In Taranaki our rainfall is

ample, while our land is, on the whole, well drained, and there is really no reason why the bulk of the country cannot support a first-class dairying pasture. The summing up of modem progressive pasture management mght be made under the following headings:— (1) The selection of suitable grass mixtures. (2) The inclusion of certified seed of good germination. (3) The consolidation of the seed bed prior to sowing. (4) The nursing of the young" grass during the first season. (5) Adequate manuring with phosphatic and perhaps potassic manures. (6) Harrowing to distribute animal droppings. (7) Better utilisation even to the extent of topping with the mower. (8) Cropping to increase the carrying capacity which will in turn improve the pasture. How those factors may be obtained is shown in detail elsewhere in this issue.