PASTURE MANAGEMENT

Waihi Daily Telegraph, Volume XXX, Issue 8530, 19 October 1933, Page 2

PASTURE MANAGEMENT

IMPORTANCE OF COMPOSITION 1 OP SWARD j JUDICIOUS USE OF SHEEP 1 It has been frequently pointed out that the management of pasture has more to do with the composition of the sward than any fertiliser practice. There is nothing, for instance, to equal the judicious use of sheep as followers on after cattle In improving a pasture, especially where sufficient sheep can be crowded on to evenly graze the pasture in a short time, to rapidly eat the grass down, but not to punish it. . Martin G. Jones, of Jealott’s Hill Experiment Station, England, recently reported on an experiment carried out to discover the influence of management on the sward. The experiment showed that, although the nitrogenous dressing approximately doubled the actual yield of fodder during the early period of grazing, it had little influence on the botanical composition of the sward. On the other hand, the time and intensity of the grazing considerably affected the botanical composition in relation both to the proportion of grasses and clovers and to the inroad of weed grasses and thistles, thus governing the improvement or deterioration of the sward. In fact, it is declared that the method of stocking is the governing factor in determining the botanical nature of the sward.

CONTROLLED GRAZING The plots which stood out as superior In this experiment were subject to a system of controlled close grazing on a rotational basis with an intervening period of complete rest. This method of grazing—the system advocated in these columns—showed how weeds are hampered in competition with the rapidly growing species of grasses, which are also the most palatable. This method also proved valuable in elimination of weed's terns badly infested pastures, frequently; with the aid of artificial manures. It should be noted that the above experiment was concerned solely - in the discovery of the best means of improving the sward from the botanij cal point of view, or from that oC [ carrying the highest proportion o£ good grasses. The enquiry was not. concerned with providing a pastures which would give grass which would, be of the highest feeding value, grass; that would contain the complete* mineral food the animal requires.. We not only want a pasture comprised of the best and most persistent grasses, but grasses that will provide, the complete food they should. This, is a problem research workers have* yet to solve.