FARM WORK FOR NOVEMBER

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 75, Issue 4, 15 October 1947, Page 362

FARM WORK FOR NOVEMBER

By

the Fields Division.

SILAGE AND HAY

Silage-making will be in full swing throughout the month. Although there has been a decline in the amount of silage made in recent years, there are still many farmers who consider it an excellent method of conserving surplus growth for future use. Material for silage should not be allowed to wilt too long before being stacked. Cut in the one day only what can be stacked the same day or the next morning. If made at a temperature of 100 degrees F. 4 to sft. down in the centre of the stack, the silage will tend to be green and sour toward the centre, changing to a sweet silage of a brown colour toward the outside. As soon as building is completed stacks should be weighted with earth, which can be held in position with boards, wire netting, or bags of earth placed round the outside of the stack.

Haymaking is an important activity on both dairy and sheep farms. Cattle and sheep produce to their maximum in the spring only if they have been adequately fed during the winter and early spring, and adequate feeding then requires the use of ample stocks of good hay. Though the introduction in recent years of more modern haymaking machinery has tended to facilitate and make more popular the saving of hay, stock could be more successfully wintered if a much greater quantity of hay were made. Many of the most successful dairy farmers, for example, make a practice of conserving double (or more) the amount saved by many others whose results are only indifferent or average. On sheep farms, also, much more hay could be utilised with advantage. Many sheep are wintered on turnips, swedes, lupins, and other kinds of greenfeed, and the addition of adequate supplies of hay would provide them with a more balanced ration.

SUPPLEMENTARY FEED

On dairy farms mangolds should now be sown for winter feed and maize and millet for summer and autumn feed if the required acreages have not already been sown. Cattle pumpkins may also be sown now.

Rape required for fattening lambs as they are weaned should be sown in breaks throughout the month at the rate of 2 J to 31b. of seed per acre on a fine seed-bed. Paddocks can be sown down to grass with the rape. It is usual to sow the grass and clover mixture down the coulters with the rape seed, but it may be sown broadcast. According to the practice most common to the district swedes may be sown with the ridger in 28in. rows and intercultivated, or the seed may be sown on the flat through every coulter of the grain drill. Chou moellier for next year’s winter feed or for a seed crop should be sown now and the ground prepared for sowing turnips in December and January. 1

POTATOES

Complete planting of main-crop potatoes. Harrow crops recently planted to kill weed growth. Crops sufficiently forward should be intercultivated to kill weeds and to conserve moisture.

LUCERNE

Many farmers plan to sow new lucerne stands during November. Provided the land has received a good fallow, and it is free from one or other of the various twitches, lucerne can be sown now with advantage. At this time of the year the land is warm, and on a fine, wellcultivated seed-bed germination of the seed will be fairly rapid. Before sowing, periodical harrowing should be carried out to destroy any weed seeds which may have germinated. The periodical harrowing will also consolidate the seed-bed from the bottom upward, and this is preferable to consolidation by using the roller. In most districts lime

should be applied at the rate of about 1 ton per acre at any convenient time before sowing the seed. Lucerne is a lime-loving plant and generally gives a marked response to adequate lime applications. Sowing of the seed should be carried out on a rolled surface. The seed may be sown broadcast, but in a district where the rainfall is uncertain it is preferable to drill the seed through every coulter at the rate of 12 to 141 b. per acre, or, if it is cross-drilled, at the rate of 8 to 91b. of seed each way. Turnip coulters or worn grain coulters should be used to ensure shallow sowing. Seed should be inoculated just before drilling, and the culture for this purpose can be ordered through a mercantile firm. The safest fertiliser to use is equal quantities of superphosphate and lime mixed a few days before drilling. Mix the seed with the fertiliser, and drill through the manure box of the grain drill.

PREPARATION FOR WHEAT

Prepare ground for next season’s wheat crop. Grassland not required for stock can be skim-ploughed now. This is particularly desirable where one or other of the various twitches is present. The twitch can be eradicated during the summer probably more effectively than at any other time of the year. Moreover the long fallow gives the turf ample opportunity to decay and thus become thoroughly incorporated throughout the soil once deep ploughing is undertaken.

IRRIGATION.

Land to be border-diked this summer for sowing down in the autumn should be deep ploughed, and then receive periodical cultivation to destroy weeds. Freedom from weeds when sowing down a field to pasture or lucerne can add many useful years to the life of the area. As border-diking by the grader proceeds the stiff-tined cultivator should follow immediately behind the grader to grub up each border.

As the season for watering usually commences this month, irrigation farmers should inspect their canvas’ dams, head-races, and head-gate boards for any defects. Where the boards have been put under cover for the winter they should be installed again in the irrigation paddocks. Large pasture areas should be subdivided so that rotational grazing may be practised. As soon as the ground temperature becomes warm and before the surface soil becomes too dry for optimum growth irrigation can commence. The time of the first irrigation for the season is governed largely by the weather conditions in the spring. Once watering commences it should be carried out regularly . throughout the summer. A hay. crop may be taken this month from the lucerne area, and as soon as the hay is off the paddock the field should be watered to boost the new growth coming away from the base of the plant.

GRASS AND CLOVER SEED PRODUCTION

Close areas for the production of perennial ryegrass, short-rotation ryegrass, and Italian ryegrass seed, and white clover seed. The quality of the land and -the general vigour of the sward will largely determine the most opportune time to remove the stock. If closed too soon, excessive bulk may create harvesting difficulties. In addition, rank-growing crops, of white clover do not set seed freely.

STOCK

All dry sheep should be shorn as soon as possible and kept grazing in a pasture of their own. In northern districts, where lambs are weaned and finished off on grass, they should be drenched regularly for parasites, and a watch should be kept for scald in wet areas. Where lambs are still running with the ewes the pastures should be kept fresh and clean by shifting the sheep at least twice a week.