Soil Temperature Will Effect Farm Pasture Fertility

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 43, 26 September 1949, Page 8

Soil Temperature Will Effect Farm Pasture Fertility

Climate, topography and soil type vary considerably throughout New Zealand. These factors, coupled with the induced differences of scil fertility, ail contribute to determine what pasture species will gain ascendancy under any particular grazing treatment. The possibilities of modifying the effects of climate are not great. Where, however, by such means as the use of shelter belts, Irrigation, or drainage, local conditions . are changed, then so must one’s methods and outlook with regard to pasture management, change accordingly. A lesser known method of modifying climatic effects consists in maintaining a vigorous pasturecover over the soil so that the extremes of tejnperature are less felt in the soil, whilst the soil moisture position can be improved considerably in the summer period. Soil temperatures fat 4in depth) taken at Grasslands over the past two years on several pasture types on the sames oil, show a wide variety of diurnal and seasonal, variations. Whereas k under poor open swards and bare ground, were recorded great daily ranges and also wide seasonal differences in temperature, these were reduced very considerably under good pasture covers. Naturally, there is a limit to the efficacy and practicability of such methods, but the principle is worthy of much greater exploitation. For instance, less severe summer grazing of sunny faces would be better both for pasture and for the soil, whilst also the relationship of the soil and pasture cover to all grazing and mechanical harvesting is worthy of study. Quick recovery of a pasture from grazing is obviously a great asset in this respect. Not the least among the attributes of our vigorous white clover is its ability to spread over bare pockets and thus to maintain a dense overall cover. This acts also to check the establishment of weed species on such bared places.