SUBTERRANEAN CLOVER

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXXIV, Issue 18820, 7 March 1931, Page 10 (Supplement)

SUBTERRANEAN CLOVER

RESULTS FROM MANURING. Tasmania has had experience of the idvantages of using subterranean (lover and superphosphate on the >oorer types of soil. A definite intance is supplied by Mr A. E. Goringe, a prominent land owner, of iempton, in the south. Some ten or welve years ago Mr Gorringe decided 10 sow the clover on a small area and ipply a top-dressing of some 90 to ,001 b. superphosphate. He has been ;o successful that he has extended the >ractice and now has some 250 acres >f clover, which is top-dressed each rear. He finds that he can carry for considerable periods up to 20 sheep per icre. Mr Gorringe’6 practice is to diride the stock between the manured lelds and his back runs. He estimates Jiat the 250 acres of treated pasture s able to carry three sheep to the acre ill the year round. Prior to treatnent the soil, which is of a light sandy nature, and in a district with a ■ainfall Just under 20ins. per year, could not support more than half a sheep per acre. Since the improvement of the pas;ure by the methods described he has lad to put on cattle, up to 25 head >eing necessary at periods to keep the growth down. No other grass has been sown, but the subterranean clover is supplemented by natural grasses. Mr jrorringe finds that when the subterranean clover goes off and early in lerbage and the seeds readily, and that ;he summer the stock eat the dried ;hey thrive on the diet. At that period le brings the back runs into action.

BABY BEEF. Possibility of profit can only be vhere there i 6 steady, continuous growth; the animal that stands still s losing money. The question is, then, lot whether a calf should be reared veil, but how well. There has been nuch written about baby beef, but ;hat system does not help us much in grazing our pastures. The cost is leavy and the profits more problema;ical than some would have us believe. [ prefer a system under which about six months of the growth period is

done at little cost. The higher the condition of the land, the easier it is to run young stock so thickly as to keep the pastures bared. Many tenant farmers are shy of spending money in artificial manures on another man’s land, but that is folly of ;he highest order. If one leaves, there is compensation, and if one stays there is 50 per cent, benefit. There is nothing on a farm that gives greater return than money judiciously spent on pastures. —From the Farmer and Stockbreeder.