FARMING NOTES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 13, Issue 67, 21 March 1949, Page 3

FARMING NOTES

Winter Pasture Management On Dairy Farms

(By E. R. Marryatt, Fields Instructor, Whakatane)

As a result of research work done at Ruakura an article entitled “Winter Pasture Management on Dairy Farms—Attaining High Production per Acre” was published in the Journal, of Agriculture for February, 1939. This article stated quite definitely that close and continuous grazing of more fields than the minimum necessary for the wintering of stock is bad farm practice for the following reasons:—■ Results of Hard Grazing

Close and continuous grazing in the winter weakens the grasses’ ability to produce in the spring. It gives less grazing than it appears to give. It strengthens the clovers’ ability to produce in the spring often resulting in much trouble from feed flavour in cream and losses of stock from bloat. It reduces the possible total of pasture production for the year.

In no less certain terms this article stated that winter spelling plus lenient grazing of as many fields as possible is good farm practice and the reasons given were these. Results of Lenient Grazing Lenient grazing in the winter allows the grasses to build up large root systems. It provides good grazing for early-calving cows. It provides mature and “safe” pasturage in the spring. It changes clovery pastures into more grassy pastures. It ensures the maximum pasture production for the year. A decade has passed since then. Ruakura has changed from a Farm Training College doing some research work to a straightout Animal Research, Station. Other workers are investigating different problems. But as far.as pasture management is concerned the results are the same. Lenient Grazing Pays

About 400 acres of Ruakura are now used for research work into problems affecting dairying and about another 400 acres for sheep research. The closely grazed sheep pastures come away in the spring about the same time as do the pastures ifi general on Waikato’s dairy farms. This is about six weeks later than on the leniently grazed No. 1 dairy farm. The No. 1 dairy farm is self-contained, normally topdressed but more heavily stocked than the average dairy farm, and carries more than the usual number of young stock. The stock, old and young, get as much food as they can eat at all times. Lenient grazing is practiced throughout the year and this is done in the winter by feeding out plenty of hay and silage,> by beginning feeding out early, by ra-tioning-off saved autumn grass with the aid of electric fences and by never leaving “stock in a field long enough to .graze it bare. Many visiting farmers have expressed. astonishment at the high carrying capacity ox this farm “in spite cf the apparent wealth of ungrazed pasture but the fact of the matter is that the high carrying is a direct result of “the apparent’ wealth of ungrazed pasture” or in other words, of lenient grazing. The formula is this: — Higher Carrying Formula

Adequate supplies of hay and silage used early and freely plus autumn grass rationed-off plus lenient grazing in the winter gives earlier growth in the spring. Earlier • growth in the spring enables earlier ensiling and haying cf surplus growth which results in earlier and better aftermaths and greater ease in saving autumn grass, thus enabling more stock to be better fed with a consequent return of more animal manure to the soil. More stock droppings builds up fertility and increases pasture production and the number of beasts to each acre.

Grass-Clover Ratio The desirable proportion of grasses to clovers in any dairying pasture will vary with the soil, the pasture species and the past management. In soils supplied with humus the ratio of grasses to clovers can well be quite wide, say 80:20, because the grasses of the pasture are able to obtain supplies of nitrogen

from decomposing vegetable mat-' ter. On poorer soils, for example on pumice, clay or sandy soils, poor often because they lack humus, the ratio must be much narower, say 60:40, because a high proportion of clovers is essential to 'the grasses of the pasture .for their supply of nitrogen and as a ground coyer or mulch to prevent loss of moisture through evaporation from bare ground between the grass plants. Similarly, the poorer th especies of clover present in the pasture the greater will be the need for more of that species in proportion to the grasses, for the poorer species of clover like suckling and subterranean clovers will support the growth of less grass than will- the same amount of white clover.

Previous Management But more than any other factor, the previous management of the pasture determines the present ratio of its grasses to clovers. The two most important features of pasture management in this respect are topdressing and grazing and of the two grazing management is by far the more powerful artifice for controlling the grass-clover ratio. Indeed, the dairy farmer is the master of the ratio of grass to clover in his pastures if he but .understands the principles of pasture management and has the skill to apply them in his own fields. And whether he be skilled or whether he be unskilled in wise manipulation of stock from field to field, his grazing management during the winter and early spring will certainly determine the ratio of grass to clover in his pastures when active growth begins in the new season.