PASTURE SPELLS PROVIDE EARLY SPRING RECOVERY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 97, 13 February 1950, Page 5

PASTURE SPELLS PROVIDE EARLY SPRING RECOVERY

The aim of pasture management on a dairy farm is to graze the pasture at a stage when there is a maximum yield of high-quality herbage, writes an'* agricultural officer.

Faulty management, whether due to failure to drain, to spread droppings, or to lax grazing, is reflected in an uneven pasture which has a food value lower than one kept at a uniform height. Drainage, chain harrowing, rotational grazing and topping overcome these shortcomings. The more complete utilisation of such areas permits Of a greater surplus to be saved for hay, silage or autumn-stored grass.

Maintenance Needs Pasture production is not at a standstill in the North Island during the winter —in those months good pastures should provide up to half of the cow’s maintenance needs. Should this entail hard winter grazing, the vigour of the swhrd in the ensuing season will be affected. Recovery in the spring will be late and the yield subsequently will be reduced.

Further, the effect of drought will be less where a lenient system of grazing is practised, as opposed to severe continuous grazing. Thus, by decreasing yield and reducing the growing season, faulty stocking can exaggerate the variable nature of pasture production. Winter spelling is thus all-im-portant. Again, lenient treatment, When desirable species in the pasture mixture are making their most vigorous growth, ensures the greatest bulk of feed being produced. The presence of ryegrass in a pasture is of value not only in respect to total yield, but also to the earliness in the season at which it commences vigorous growth. Harsh treatment at that period will reduce its vigour. Saving Grass

Saving “cool-stored” grass comes under the category of winter spelling. The ryegrass growth in the spring, consequent 'on the return of nitrogenous excreta as the new-ly-calved cows feed off in early spring the paddocks shut up since the autumn, provides probably the best means of securing the correct balance in a ryegrass-white clover sward.

Further methods of winter spelling include keeping the stock on the lighter, freer-draining portions of the farm—the heavier land is saved from pugging by stock and the lighter gains by the added fertility consequent upon feeding out. If such lighter areas are not available ti may pay to sacrifice certain paddocks, which should be recompensed by the addition of dung and by a lengthy spell in the early spring to allow them to thicken up.