WAIMATE WEST DEMONSTRATION FARM.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XXXVII, Issue 5, 20 November 1928, Page 332

WAIMATE WEST DEMONSTRATION FARM.

NOTES ON OPERATIONS FOR YEAR 1927-28

J. W. Deem,

Fields Superintendent, Wanganui

The season of 1927-28 in,the Manaia locality was not of the best for milk production. The early spring was mild and cows started away well; then dry weather set in about the middle of September, with cold winds. This continued into November, when, about the middle of the month, fair rains were experienced. These were followed by drought conditions from the middle of December to the end of March. The dry conditions greatly affected the seasonal growth of grass, and were reflected in the herd production. To illustrate this, the butterfat returns for October were 1,8941b., for November 1,8441b., and for December 1,9021b., with a drop to 1,594 lb. in January. This is the first time in the history of the farm that there has been a drop in butterfat in November, to be recovered in December.

The farm pastures were satisfactory during September and the early part of October, but, owing to the weather conditions mentioned above, they went off badly from- the middle of October to the middle of November. A good recovery was shown in the early part of December, which lasted until the end of the month, from which date they became very bare and continued so until the end of March, after which there was a fair recovery. In the preceding year the grass-grub had been very bad on most of the farm. Careful feeding out of roots, ensilage, and hay was practised on the worst areas, and although the grass was thin on several of. the pastures in the spring there has been a very good recovery, and unless a fresh attack is experienced during the current season the ultimate harm will not be great. At the same time it must be recognized that the carrying-capacity of the farm in the spring of 1927 was greatly reduced, and this to some extent accounts for the falling off in butterfat returns.

ROOT CROPS

These crops consisted of 1 acre each of mangolds, carrots, soft turnips, and chou-moellier. As in the past the sown crops had a great battle with fumitory and wild turnip. . Most of the available labour on the farm was spent in, weeding the mangolds and carrots in the early stages,, and by the time the other crops received attention the dry weather had set in; consequently these crops were not very good. . '

The mangold and carrot crops made a wonderful recovery during March and April and yielded an average of 45 . tons 10 cwt. per acre for carrots and 76 tons for mangolds. The carrots were only fair quality, but the mangolds, were very good. A test, between Matchless White and Sinclair’s Champion carrots resulted in a win for the former with 46 tons 13 cwt. per acre, against 43 tons 4 cwt. for Champion. Red Intermediate mangolds were tested against' Prizewinner, the yield weights being 87 tons 3 cwt. for Red Intermediate and 76 tons 1 cwt. for Prizewinner. Red Intermediate is a very fine mangold for this district and greatly preferable to Long Red or similar

varieties. The ideal practice would be to grow half of Red Intermediate and half of Prizewinner. The manure used for the carrots was three parts -super and one part each of Nauru phosphate and bonemeal, at 4 cwt. per acre. .

A mangold manurial trial was carried out with Prizewinner to test the various potassic manures, also to try the farm’s standard mangold manure against Sulphurophosphate. The results were ' as follows : —

(Standard mixture : 3 parts super, 1 part Nauru phosphate, 1 part bonemeal.) 2Vo. I. Yield per Acre , Tons. cwt. ' Standard mixture 5 cwt. kainit 3 cwt., per acre .. .. . . 76 1 Sulphurophosphate 5 cwt. ; kainit 3 cwt., per acre ■ ■ . . . . 49 5 Increase in favour of standard mixture . . . . . . 26 16 No. 2.

Standard mixture 5 cwt. ; kainit 3 cwt., per acre . . . . . . 76 1 Standard mixture 5 cwt. ; muriate of potash 1 cwt., per acre ’. . 68 19 Standard mixture 5 cwt. ; sulphate of potash 1 cwt., per acre . . 61 12 Standard mixture 5 cwt. ; 30-per-cent. potash 1 cwt., per acre . . 61 12

This bears out the results of numerous previous trials, which indicate that it is the salt more than the actual potash that has the beneficial effect on mangolds, and we can only reiterate our previous advice to use in addition to phosphatic ' fertilizer 3 cwt. to 4 cwt. of kainit or salt in preference to other potassic fertilizers. In this connection the approximate prices per ton of potash fertilizers may be noted as follows Sulphate of potash, £16; muriate of potash, £15 10s. ; 30-per-cent. potash, £7 15s. ; and kainit, £5 10s.

TOP-DRESSING OF PASTURES : A POTASH EXPERIMENT

■ Previous tests had failed to indicate any improvement, either to the eye or through preference by stock, where 2 cwt. kainit, 1 cwt. 30-per-cent. potash, or | cwt. sulphate of potash per acre, had been applied for several seasons in < addition to the usual phosphatic topdressings. A definite feeding test was therefore carried out. Fields 2, 3, ■ 6, and 7, of 12 acres each, were subdivided into eight 6-acre paddocks, after having been given the usual phosphatic dressing of 3 cwt. per acre. Water, was laid on to.each field. Fields 2, 3, 6a, and 7A were then dressed with potash, Field 2 getting kainit, Field 3 30-per-cent. potash, Field 6a muriate of potash, and Field 7 a sulphate of potash. Each field received sufficient of. one or other of - the different potassic fertilizers to give it 30 lb. of actual potash per acre. The control Fields 2A, 3A, 6, and 7 received at the same time an extra 11 cwt. of super per acre, so as to about equalize the''monetary value of the different dressings. Arrangements were then made to graze the dairy herd the full twenty-four hours on each field. The system followed was to graze'the- four supered fields in rotation, and then the four potash fields, then to return to the super, and so on through the season, giving the herd a fresh field every, morning. This was continued from 15th September to 30th March. By grazing the cows twenty-four hours in each field no loss of fertility was suffered by any area, as is so often the case when different day and night paddocks

are used. The following table gives the amount of milk produced by each field for the period :

' lb. Field 2, kainit .. .. 24,208 Field 3. 30 per cent, potash 24,117 Field 6a, muriate of potash . . 24,139 Field 7A, sulphate of potash. . 24)007 Total .. .. 96,471 ===== |

lb. Field 2A, phosphates only . . 24,426 Field 3A ~ . 23,919 Field 6 ~ 23,801 Field 7 ■ ~ ' 24,258 Total .. .. 96,004

This gives an increase of 367 lb. of milk over a period of 6| months in favour of the potash-dressed fields. A small increase such as this is not significant, however, and cannot be accepted as being in favour of potash or otherwise without further evidence. So far as could be seen by the eye there was no difference in grazing except in Field 7A, which appeared to be kept shorter than Field 7. In the autumn, after the March rains, the fields which had received the extra super looked much greener than those which had had the potash. Unfortunately, by the time there was a fair growth of pasturage from the autumn rains the herd was practically dry. These top-dressings have been repeated and the test is being continued this season.

LUCERNE.

Lucerne continues to do well on the farm. The area of 8 acres was cut in November for ensilage. Green feeding started early in January and continued up to the middle of April. In addition to providing green feed for the herd of forty-eight milking cows and several store animals during this period, about 4 acres of one cut was hayed. Had it not been for the lucerne, feed for the herd would have been very short during January, February, and March.

. The practice of sowing 1 bushel of Algerian oats with 2 cwt. of super after the last autumn cultivation has been followed on this stand for the past five yearsabout two-thirds receiving the - oats and onethird kept as a control. So far the lucerne has not shown any signs of deterioration from the addition of the oats. The -oats provide good spring grazing if required, and they nearly double the weight of green material for the first cut in November.