VALUE OF FERTILISERS
BENEFIT TO LIVESTOCK ENSURING FULL PRODUCTIVITY It has long been established that the chemical composition of plants varies with the soil in which they are grown. The value of fertilisers lies in remedying such deficiencies as are known to exist, and it is useless to add. let us say, phosphates to a soil deficient in lime; in fact, one of the effects may be to increase the relative deficiency of lime.
Given correct fertilisers, the action on grassland is of a two-fold nature, writes Arthur Crichton, of the Duthie Stock Farm, in the Farmer and Stockbreeder (London). In the first place, the botanical composition of the sward is altered. The most dramatic effect of phosphatic manuring, for example, is to allow leguminous plants, and especially wild white clover, to grow where they could not spread unaided. Nitrogenous manures, on the other hand, favour grasses, so that it is possible to modify grassland by the proper use of fertilisers. In the second place, the chemical composition of the actual species of plants may be modified. Thus, after manuring with lime, red clover may contain a greater percentage of lime than when unmanured. Similarly, forage crops, particularly hay, can be materially altered in composition. Grain crops, while affected in their yield by manuring, are not greatly changed in chemical composition, since they are mainly carbohydrate in nature, and carbohydrates are formed by sunlight, water and air rather than by constituents of the soiL Soil Types Soil types also Leave their imprint on the stock which they support Thus the best racehorses generally come off limestone country; there are areas, particularly in South Africa and Australia, where there is insufficient phoshorus in the soil to form bone, and only adult stock can be pastured. Farm stock are very adaptable to the conditions under which they are bred. But adaptation to a low mineral intake takes the form of slower growth, resulting in smaller size and delay in the onset of breeding. The resulting later maturity and lowered production may show the need for fertilisers applied to the soil, even where stock are apparently quite healthy. The most common mineral deficiency of soil reflected in the ill-health of farm stock is undoubtedly that of phoshorous. This deficiency can be remedied in one of two ways. Either some supplement, such as bone meal, is fed directly to the animals, or the phosphorus content of the pasture is raised through fertiliser application. Phosphates for Choice The second is the method of choice. Phosphates applied to pasture not only raise the phosphate content of the herbage, but, quite as important, increase its protein content by the encouragement of leguminous plants. It is only under ranching conditions, where many acres are used in supporting one animal, that the direct feeding of mineral supplements can be advised. Similarly with lime. Where animals are losing size and bone and have not responded to phosphatic fertilisers, liming of the land is always preferable, where it is economically possible, to feeding the chalk direct to the animals.
The value of nitrogenous fertilisers, as far as stock are concerned, lies rather in an extension of the grazing season than in the correction of any protein (of which nitrogen is the distinguishing element) deficiency in the pasture. An extra month’s grazing in the early months of the year means, among other things, that the animals are less likely to develop signs of a deficiency of vitamin A, a substance recently shown to be of unexpected importance to stock under grazing conditions. ( Maintaining Productivity Phosphatic and nitrogenous fertilisers and also lime can be of the utmost importance, not only in the growing of crops, but in maintaining the productivity and constitution of farm stock. Indeed, in many areas, the alternative to their use is a slowly progressive decrease both in regard to the size and fertility of stock. Fertilisers mean more pasture and more forage, so that heavier stocking must result, and then may come the stage when the problem of internal parasites comes to the fore. The question has often been asked, particularly as regards sheep, whether the use of fertilisers may not increase parasitic troubles by necessitating heavier stocking. The answer, however, is that wherever trials have been carried out the application of fertilisers to pasture has tended to reduce the ravages of worms. That is because one of the most important defences of stock against the ravages of internal parasites is satisfactory nutrition.
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Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20669, 6 March 1937, Page 15 (Supplement)
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744VALUE OF FERTILISERS Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20669, 6 March 1937, Page 15 (Supplement)
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