Crop and Pasture Production

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 99, Issue 6, 15 December 1959, Page 521

Crop and Pasture Production

Seasonal Notes by the Farm Advisory Division

HARVESTING CHOU MOELLIER AND RAPE SEED

CHOU moellier and rape seed crops are ready for cutting when the majority of the pods have turned golden brown and when the seeds

in the lower, more mature pods have started to turn brown. However, as most crops tend to ripen unevenly owing to soil variations in paddocks a decision on cutting is often very difficult to make. When a decision is being made the only reliable method is to take a representative sample of heads from throughout the crop. Cutting too early will result in shrivelling of the seed and. excessive loss of weight; leaving the crop too long can result in heavy losses from shaking, particularly in rape. It is often wise to open a crop up a day or so before it is at the optimum stage for cutting to ensure that the binder is working efficiently and to allow quick progress should the weather be unfavourable. Crops are usually cut with a binder into sheaves or windrowed. Windrowing, though satisfactory for chou moellier crops, is not recommended for rape, as seed losses from shaking can be extremely high in strong winds. Stooking, though sometimes adopted in chou moellier crops, is not necessary for rape. The sheaves, however, should be lifted up on to the stubble for even drying and left from 10 to 14 days for the seed to mature, The header, with a small canvas-covered platform attached to the front, is now generally used for threshing. The normal practice is to fork the sheaves on to the platform, where one man cuts the strings and then feeds the straw evenly into the drum as the header moves round the paddock. The drum of the header should be set wide open and the speed reduced as low as is possible consistent with thorough threshing to ensure a good sample with a minimum of split or shelled seed. Chou moellier crops are sometimes direct headed, but it is not recommended unless the crop is so badly lodged that cutting with a binder is practically impossible. —J. L. SYMONS, Waimate

SPRAYING BLACKBERRY

**. * ■ THE best time to spray blackberry is summer and early autumn. Plants should be in full leaf, with the second-

year canes fruiting or past fruiting. Spray in fine, warm weather with 2,4,5-T. at 1 fl. oz. (2 tablespoons) of 2,4,5-T concentrate per gallon of water or 2 pints of concentrate per 40 gallons of water. At this rate 1 gallon of 2,4,5-T concentrate is required per acre of dense blackberry. Thorough wetting of the foliage and complete cover of all leaves and canes are necessary. Even when blackberry has been sprayed most carefully, there is almost always some regrowth, and two or three follow-up treatments are necessary for a complete kill. Blackberry cannot normally be eradicated with one spraying. Large areas of blackberry on tractor country should be crushed, burnt, and regrassed. Topdressing and stocking the regrassed area will control the blackberry regrowth to some extent.' Plants that persist can then be controlled by mowing or killed with spray. \ —M. G. BOYER, Te Awamutu

HARVESTING PEAS

* * * TWO methods are adopted for harvesting garden peas. The first gives a better colour to the produce, a desirable

feature for the market. . The crop should be cut when the top pods are just past their best for table use. The peas are then left ,to mature in the swath for a week or longer before threshing, which involves a risk of wind and rain damage. The less handling the crop

receives, especially in hot weather, the less will be the loss from shelling. The second method is to leave the crop until it is header ripe, when it is cut with the mower directly in front of the header harvester. The use of pea lifters and a “gooseneck” may be warranted to handle the crops. Field peas are usually best direct headed. Care is necessary in the threshing of the crop to avoid damage to the peas. A relatively fast drum speed with the concave set fairly wide is a usual setting. Samples of the threshed peas should be inspected from time to time during the day, as alterations to the setting may be required, particularly if there is a change from nor’-west to easterly conditions. To condition the peas after threshing sacks should be left in the paddock for a few days or placed on the gratings of a woolshed floor. —P. R. BARRER, Christchurch

* MANAGEMENT OF WEANED LAMBS

* * IT is necessary to plan ahead for weaning particularly if lambs are to be weaned on to pasture. Only

clean, spelled grass of good quality can be expected to fatten lambs quickly. When feed is approaching short supply an endeavour should be made to wean before the critical stage is reached. Ewes can then be put .on a maintenance ration and the lambs spread over a greater area. Generally lambs tend to thrive best when lightly stocked on “clean” pasture. When feed is limited fatteners should be drafted from replacement lambs and given preference. Where fodder crops are provided best results are obtained if the lambs are given small breaks and moved to fresh feed frequently. Run-offs have little merit, unless they are necessary to provide a water supply. Rape crops should always be mature before grazing and chou moellier crops should be watched closely for signs of unpalatability and toxicity. Crutching at weaning is desirable. Drenching is seldom necessary at this stage, but thereafter regular inspection should be made for signs of parasitism. Under humid conditions drenching every three do four weeks may be necessary. Care should be taken not to drench or handle lambs excessively under hot, dry conditions. If driving and holding cannot be avoided, provision must be made for ample shade and water. Regular and frequent shepherding must be carried out during the fattening period, as lambs often fail to thrive under apparently ideal conditions and even a short period of neglect may mean a rapid loss of condition. —M. L. CAMERON, Timaru

ARMY WORM CONTROL IN MAIZE CROPS

* * * ARMY worms and cutworms often appear in maize crops in January and February. If left unnoticed or if control is delayed for even a few days, a heavy

crop can be completely defoliated. A close watch should therefore be kept for the appearance of nocturnally active caterpillars, i to 1| in. long, in the crop. They may be green, various shades of khaki and brown, or even black. A further identifying feature is that the caterpillars twist into a coil when disturbed. A cheap and very effective method is to spread through the crop by hand or by blower topdresser a bait composed of 30 lb of bran, i lb of 50 per cent DDT, and 5 lb of molasses. The insecticide is easily mixed with the bran in a concrete mixer, after which it is advisable to wet the mixture to ensure that the DDT sticks to the carrier. The molasses may be added with the water. The insecticides mentioned are harmful to honey bees, and care must be taken that there is no drift on to areas where bees are working. . ..

—B. A. GUNNING,

Matamata.

j Book Review |g JjLixli ii.il i ill I Lil..”

“Grass Productivity’’: Andre Voisin

A NDRE VOISIN is a French farmer and biochemist whose recent book “Grass Productivity” has been hailed by some British reviewers as a farming classic. Probably the reason for this is that the book breaks new ground in European agriculture, as it deals more particularly with grazing than with grass, and the title could be more appropriately “Cow Productivity”. As Voisin says, “Text books on animal nutrition devote only a few words, out of politeness, to grazing, although this feeds the animals for eight months out of twelve. They are almost solely concerned with stall feeding. Very little is written about the practical management of grazing or its principles”. Voisin proceeds to rectify these omissions by writing over 350 pages on the grazing of pastures. Because of this his book will have particular interest to New Zealand farmers, particularly dairy farmers. In fact many of his views will be more acceptable here than in Europe. He has no high regard for leys, but prefers old pastures. He regards clovers as being useful not. only for feed but for supplying nitrogen to other associated plants, and he regards grass as the main food for high production, and

not just a tonic for stall-fed animals or a supplement to concentrates. His plans are laid to provide his cows with as much good grass as possible over the grazing season by judicious grazing, using the electric fence. However, in dealing with the peaks and troughs of seasonal production, he makes very little mention of closing up grass for hay or silage, a practice we in New Zealand are accustomed to follow to even out production. The author draws much of his information about the behaviour of dairy cows from work by J. J. Hancock and others at Ruakura, though it is obvious that he has searched world literature on grassland management to build up an interesting story. To those who have little time to read original papers, such a digest is refreshing, particularly since Voisin has the knack of writing in clear, concise prose that farmers can understand. Catherine Herriot, who did the translation from the French, has done a good job in maintaining the interesting style. Though one cannot agree with all the claims made by the author, the book is stimulating because of its practical approach to the potentialities

of grassland and its use by the grazing animal. But it is not merely techniques of grassland management that Voisin deals with, it is grazing management; and he does not advocate rotational grazing so much as “rational” grazing. Principles expounded by Voisin are: A pasture cannot achieve its maximum productivity unless it is given a rest between grazings, and the interval varies according to seasonal conditions; the grazing periods should be short so that the new growth is not retarded; the cow cannot achieve maximum production unless she is capable of harvesting very large quantities of grass during the eight-hour daily grazing period; the highest producers must therefore have the first choice of the grass available. Voisin gives rather lengthy details of how these principles are applied to his farm in Normandy on which he produces 205 lb of butter per acre from grass during the grazing season (April to November). His examples of dividing pastures by electric fences are of interest, but he maintains that subdivision is “not an end in itself, but a means of helping to satisfy, by judicious compromise, the requirements of animal and grass”. In his foreword to the book Professor M. McG. Cooper, a former New Zealand Rhodes Scholar, commends Voisin’s dual consideration of both plant and animal, and considers that his book will stimulate a new approach to the treatment of permanent pastures in Britain, though “Mac” Cooper also has a sneaking suspicion that Voisin is sometimes “trailing his coat”. Many other people will also consider the book provocative, but in the midst of the present controversy about such things as set stocking and rotational grazing those who make up their minds and say so emphatically create some opposition, but like Voisin they also stimulate a good deal of interest.

—J.W.W.

Crosby Lockwood

(1959). 50s.