“SUBTERGRIM” LUCERNE

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 80, Issue 274, 18 November 1937, Page 11

“SUBTERGRIM” LUCERNE

KING OF FORAGE CROPS HIGH YIELD PER ACRE The first crop of “Subtergrim* lucerne for this season cut by Mr. R Trimble, St. Kilda, Otago, on November 10, gave a yield of 16.034 tons green lucerne per acre, which converted into hay by the ascertained process yielded 4.715 tons per acre. This is the fourth year of production of this stand of lucerne and Mr. Trimble expects to have at least four more crops from it before the season ends. No manures or fertilisers of any description were at any lime applied. One ton of ground burnt lime was applied to the land before the seed was sown. The seed was sown in rows sufficiently wide apart to admit of intercultivation, which guarantees i pure crop of lucerne at each cut, and not as i/ stands that have been sown broadcast, a high percentage of weeds along with the lucerne. The crop was healthy and the leafage was prolific from the tip of the stem right down to the ground level at which point the crop was cut; this being on account of the crown of the plant being from two to three inches below the surface of I the land, unlike Marlborough and other common tap-rooted strains of lucerne that grow their crowns above the ground level, therefore such crops have to be cut several inches above ground level to prevent injury. A total yield of five to six tons per acre for a whole season's crops of Marlborough lucerne is considered good, but seldom if ever reached. The average yield per annum is given in the Year Book, 1937, as 2.9 tons pel acre. With such low yields of lucerne hay for a season, when compared with the authenticated qields of “Subtergrim,” which has reached 17.4 tons per acre in six crops in a season, Marlborough lucerne then can only be characterised as medium.

To the average New Zealand farmer lucerne is just lucerne end no better in his estimation than “rye grass hay which gives an average yield of li tons hay in a year, and is of low nutritive value per ton. To the intelligent farmer who knows how to use them a yield of 4.715 tons lucerne hay in early spring or at any time in the season makes him think deeply t for a lucerne that produces such magnificent crops of high nutritive value is of inestimable value to the Dominion, so he figures it out to know its true market value and following is the result he gets.

To determine the relative value of foods, authorities agree that this should be based on the digestible protein they contain —protein being th< most valuable constituent in foods for man or beast. Oats has the highest protein content in cereals, and is authoritatively accepted as a basis on which to estimate values and is here taken for that purpose. One tone of oats equals 56 bushels and contains 2391bs digestible protein. One ton of lucerne hay contains 2351bs digestible protein, therefore when oats are selling at 3s 6d per bushel, which they are now, the value of one ton ol lucerne hay is £9 12s 8d per ton and the value of the 4.715 tons would figure £45 8s 5d per acre, and there will be four more crops to follow before the season ends. ' There are few soils in New Zealand on which “Subtergrim” lucerne won’t grow and they are known. It is now growing successfuly from Auckland to Invercargill and from the sands on the sea shore to the Hermitage, Mount Cook; also in all quarters of the globe from the highlands of Scotland in the far north to Patagonia in the far south.