PARADISE OF PASPALUM

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 76, Issue 105, 6 May 1933, Page 20 (Supplement)

PARADISE OF PASPALUM

NEW SOUTH WALES GROWTH. The coastal dairying districts of New South Wales, with the exception of proportions of the Hunter Valley, are again in the midst of a lush season, says an Australian paper. For the most part the dairy farms are a paradise of paspalum. On the Upper North Coast, especially along the Clarence River, the drought scarcity of pasture has been replaced with fast-growing, luscious grass—the forerunner of the increased butter production, which was mainly responsible for the latest drop in prices. It now becomes a question of the best means of utilisation of the profuse and surplus growth of paspalum. Past experience has shown that February normally is the best month for haymaking, in order to rake off the rank growth and make way for a fresh shoot for autumn-winter feed. The weather, however, does not always fit in for this work, and the disposition now is to conserve grass in the form of the more succulent silage. The grassland management propaganda has also stimulated interest in this system, and it is ceitain that there will bo a large increase in the auaatity of paspalum converted into silage. The New Zealand practice of miking stack silage has bou warmly advocated, but more conviicing results have been obtained from pitting (he grass.