NEW PASTURES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLIII, Issue 20927, 5 January 1938, Page 3

NEW PASTURES

PREPARATION OF THE SEED-BED SOWING OF GOOD SEED One of the tasks of basic importance to be faced by many farmers during the next few months is the sowing of new pastures, which often clearly does not receive as much thought as it warrants. A vital aspect of the position is that many preserve with inferior pastures when the most profitable course would be to put such poorly productive grassland under cultivation with the ultimate object of resowing to obtain a new. superior pasture in the establishment of which it w’ould be possible to use the superior strains of rye-grass, clover, and etc., which have been introduced to commerce during fairly recent years, and which enable high-class pastures of a permanent / character to be obtained.

Really poor results in the establishment of pastures are far from uncommon writes R. P. Connell in the Journal of Agriculture. It is of much practical importance to bear in mind at this season that such poor results are generally due to one or more of the following causes: (1) Sowing on a poorly prepared seed-bed; (2) sowing at an unsuitable time of the year; (3) use of unsuitable seed.

In the case of pastures sown in the fall of the year both sowing on a poorly prepared seed-bed and sowing at an unsuitable time of the year usually may be traced to starting preparatory cultivation at too late a date. Full success in the sowing of permanent pastures may be expected only when the seed-bed is in fine firm condition; lumpy seed-beds is certainly courting failure, which though it is unlikely to be complete, is very likely to be particularly costly in its influence on the returns over a series of years. For instance, loose lumpy seed-beds quite often are linked with failures of clovers, a poor development of which is not consistent with a vigorous highly nutritious and highly palatable pasture in the fall now should be kept in mind. A short preparation of the seed-bed does not allow of the natural weathering of the soil which field practice has shown to play a valuable role in the economical production of a fine, firm seed-bed. If preparatory cultivation is not commenced early enough, a ready alternative to sowing on a poorly prepared seed-bed at the right time is sowing later on a well-prepared seed-bed. Fairly often the date of sowing of pastures in the autumn is too late. In many parts some danger attaches to sowing later than March. Undoubtedly sowings made later than March at times are quite successful, but in many districts in the majority of seasons such late sowings cannot be depended upon for good results. It seems to be widely known that clovers are likely to suffer in late sowings, but it probably is not so generally realised that the development of rye-grass and other plants is at times subject to such great checks as the result of late sowings that it becomes doubtful whether the new pasture ever attains the level of production that a suitably early sowing would give: apart from any damage by the clovers slow development of pasture-seedlings may readily give weeds a greater foothold than they could gain during the quicker development that early sowing with its greater soil-warmth brings about. If pasture is to follow an arable crop it may quite well be sound practice, provided the land is reasonably clean, to disk rather than to plough: the firmness of the seed-bed given by the disking may be an advantage, and in disking any fertilizing-matter provided by animal manure is kept near the surface where it is of most ready and effective benefit to the young pasture-plants. The value of firmness in the seed-beds for pastures is often demonstrated in the form of unusually good “strides” where there has been exceptional consolidation — eg., in hoof-marks or in wheel-tracks or along headlands. Apart from the fact that firmness in the seed-bed seems to lead to vigorous root-develop-ment in pasture-plants, it is of major importance that there is less likelihood of seeds being covered too deeply in firm seed-beds: many of the pas-ture-seeds are so small that they can establish successfully only when lightly covered.