Crop and Pasture Production

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 99, Issue 5, 16 November 1959, Page 427

Crop and Pasture Production

Seasonal Notes by the Farm Advisory Division

LUCERNE SEED CROP

CLIMATE and locality appear to have more influence than management 1 -?. lucerne seed production. Districts with

a warm, dry climate and hot, dry winds during the pollination period seem to be the most favoured. In addition the crop requires adequate moisture during flowering to secure good seed setting.

If early spring growth is to be obtained, winter grazing and especially late winter grazing should be avoided. A hay crop is first taken and then the area is shut up for seed. Some growers take two light crops of hay, but the normal time for shutting up for seed is during November.

Older stands are better for seed than young stands, which are normally too vigorous and dense and make too much growth, which interferes with seed setting and also makes harvesting difficult. Some of the best yields have come from stands that had practically run out and were ready for ploughing.

'Die crop is usually ready for harvesting in late autumn. Normally the crop is ready to cut when 75 per cent of the seed pods have turned dark brown. It is cut with the mower and.then threshed from the swath with the header harvester with pick-up attachment. . In crops where conditioning is difficult a general practice is to turn the swath or lift it with the aerator, doing only as much as can be threshed the same day. Where crops are late or harvesting is hampered by weather or too much leafy growth, the best method is to spray with a defoliant and direct head. —R. G. JOLLY, Christchurch

LUCERNE-GRASS r MIXTURES \ \

MANY combinations of lucerne-

grass mixtures have been tried, but cocksfoot appears to be the most suitable companion grass under the

conditions which favour the use of lucerne as a pasture plant. ' ... ■

The seeding rate of cocksfoot must be light and 2 lb per acre should be the maximum, and even this would dominate the 'lucerne if allowed to seed regularly, so grazing should be sufficiently severe to prevent heavy seeding. ' ■

Other grasses such as timothy may be worth considering under higher-rainfall conditions, but the need for lucerne as a pasture plant is not the same where ryegrasses and clovers are the basis of pasture production. Often, however, districts with a high annual rainfall are subject to droughts and the use of lucerne-grass mixtures for this critical period may be worth considering for hay and pasture use.

—W. A. LUNN, Ranfurly

CONTROL OF RUSHES

OF. the rush species which commonly infest pastures the most readily killed by hormone preparations is the soft rush

Jimcus effusus. It is more readily eaten by stock than the harder-stemmed, more wiry species and thus it can generally be killed by spraying without prior cutting.

Other species of rush, such as the common J. polyanthemos, should be cut and the regrowth sprayed, usually about two months later. Sufficient regrowth -to absorb the spray should be allowed, but spraying must be done before the stems become hard with the onset of dry weather. Rushes cut in early spring can be sprayed in early summer, when regrowth will have reached?! to 2 ft high, depending on the species.

The hormone preparations which have given the most satisfactory results are the emulsifiable esters of 2,4-D at 2 lb acid equivalent per acre. Rushes are difficult to wet and an atomised spray should be used in calm weather to avoid excessive spray drift.

Rushes are chiefly a weed of damp places, though they are not confined to these. Chemical removal of rushes could be of little avail if nothing was done to correct the conditions responsible for their presence. If by drainage or soil fertility improvement the vigour of pasture species can be increased, the likelihood of early reinfestation will be greatly reduced. ' .

Close grazing appears to favour the spread of rushes so that cattle grazing or taking of periodic hay cuts could help to restrict their spread. As in most aspects of weed control spraying should be an aid to good management and not a substitute for it.

—-W. F. LEONARD, Christchurch

PASPALUM SILAGE

DAIRY farmers in the warmer districts of

the Auckland Province frequently find surplus paspalum growth an embarrassment

during a wet summer and autumn. Though paspalum has a fairly high fibre content compared with species, such as short-rotation ryegrass, it can be made into good; silage if precautions are taken. The area to be closed .for silage should be topped during December or early January to ensure an even crop of good leafy herbage.

The crop should be cut at a height of 12 to 18 in., when there will be maximum bulk and reasonable quality. If the crop is left to get mature and stalky, its feeding value is virtually nil and it cannot be made into good silage; If soil fertility is satisfactory, there will be a reasonable clover content in the cut material. The crop should be harvested without delay, and no more should be cut than can be handled in a day. If the weather is particularly hot cut in the morning only sufficient to be carted in up to lunch time, and then cut another lot for the afternoon. Never allow the material to wilt . and make sure that the green material is well consolidated in the pit er -stack to reduce heating to a minimum. With these precautions silage of . a high quality can be made from paspalum that will enable good use to be made of fodder that would otherwise be wasted. It is often better to make silage rather than hay from paspalum.

—A. V. ALLO, Tauranga