CARE OF PASTURES

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLV, Issue 21154, 29 September 1938, Page 3

CARE OF PASTURES

MORE BALANCE NEEDED IS TOO CLOSE GRAZING HARMFUL TO STOCK? Ideas on grassland management have altered considerably in recent years, and the knee-deep pastures of a few years ago, then regarded as a sign of good and cautious grazing are no longer looked upon with satisfaction. It is now realised that mature grass growth is much lower in real food value —proteins and minerals—than that which is kept short and in a constant state of growth. Some observant and thoughtful graziers are inclined to think, however, that we are going too far in this practice of constant short grazing. They contend, with some justification, that constant close grazing and regular topdressing with one type of fertilisersuperphosphate—tends to eliminate entirely the deeper-rooted coarser grasses, and that as a consequence the stock get too much protein and too little carbohydrate and fibre in their food. This, it is suggested, has a pronounced influence on the animal’s ability to resist disease which may result from an overloaded or impure bloodstream. In her alteration of the seasons, and the accompanying change in the characteristics of the grasses grown at these times. Nature indicates that change of diet, even when this may be to one apparently less nourishing, is good for herbivorous livestock. In a bulletin entitled “The nutritive value of grasses as pasture, hay and aftermath, as shown by their chemical composition,” Mr T. W. Fagan, adviser in agricultural chemistry of the University College of Wales, at Aberstwyth, says that it was found that repeated cuttings of pasture grass, compared with cuts taken at less frequent intervals, tend to produce a more leafy herbage, and. further, that cuts taken about the same time as a cut for hay contained a lower proportion of leaf than the cuts taken at other times. The pasture sample cut nearest to the date of the hay sample more closely resembled the hay sample in chemical composition than any of the others; it showed the lowest content of protein of all the pasture samples. Mr Fagan states that this is largely due to the fact that this is the natural stemming period of grasses, the time they naturally tend to throw flower stems, but that hard grazing reduces this tendency to stem, with its consequent lowering effect on the nutritive value of the grass.