Pasture Research In N.Z. Assists Bay Farmers

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 70, 30 November 1949, Page 4

Pasture Research In N.Z. Assists Bay Farmers

The improvement in the quality of pastures by research and the investigations into soils, husbandry, and animal thrift in relation to grasslands, has been of considerable benefit to the sheep and cattle farmer of the Bay of Plenty. Early Settlers Started

Early settlers from Great Britain brought''grass and clover seeds to New Zealand, and commenced the conversion to grasslands of extensive areas of bush. The introduced species adapted themselves very well to the new conditions, but the somewhat haphazard harvesting of seeds grown in a wide variety of soils and climatic zones resulted in many poor types of grasses and clovers. I

When research workers commenced investigations in 1929 it was soon realised that while some types were good, many of the commercial lines of both grasses and clovers were unsuitable strains.

Today under the Government’s certification scheme all seeds are of the type or strain specified, and* to ensure that the seeds of pasture plants are of superior strains only plot-tested seeds are included. The Grasslands Division of the Department of, Scientific and Industroal Research sows 9,000 plots of certified seed in order to keep a check on high-grade standard lines. The Division also Breeds new and better lines of pasture plants, and from these nucleus stocks, seeds are produced to enable fields to be sown under seed-growing contracts. Available To Farmer

The pedigree production from these fields then becomes available to the farmer as Government stock seed under the certification scheme. The work of the Division does not end with the breeding and testing of good pasture plants. .Soil fertility and pasture management are vitally important in getting the best' out of New Zealand grasslands, and studies on these lines have been carried out for many years on both flat and hill country.