Regular Cropping On Light Land

Press, Issue 31095, 25 June 1966, Page 9

Regular Cropping On Light Land

In spite of a regular mixed cropping programme on Mr D. H. Warren’s light land property at Mayfield, yields are continuing to rise.

However, his programme is well backed by heavy topdressing, applications of 3cwt of super a year being used when the land is in pasture.

The rotation was explained by Mr Warren, when 60 members of the Mayfield branch of Federated Farmers took part in a farm walk on his property this week. Mr Warren farms 525 acres, 436 of it being ploughable, in the Anama-Mayfield district His property is by no means compact, as there are three main blocks of 220, 80 and 140 acres respectively, and two smaller pockets running on either side of the South Hinds river.

The field day occupied four hours, and covered a fair range of farm topics. But the keenest discussion was on Mr Warren’s management of his Mayfield block. This block is light stony land, being described as Mayfield shallow silt loam and Hororata stony and shallow silt loam.

Mr B. J. Ryde, of Lincoln College, who led the discussion commented that Mr Warren’s farm was run on lines that one would expect to find in a district like Methven. Mr R. H. Smith, a farm improvement club adviser, said the net income from sheep on the property was running out at £l5 an acre, whereas a 60 bushel crop of wheat was netting £36. He thought the difference in favour of wheat gave every justfication for growing wheat.

Mr Warren, whose property includes 250 acres of Wakanui silt loam, said his wheat yields had ranged from 50 to 55 bushels an acre for Hilgendorf and 70 for Arawa. His best paddock had yielded 60 bushels of dressed grass seed. His peas this year had yielded 35 bushels an acre, but this was because he had mowed them before harvesting, when he should have headed them direct.

On his Mayfield block Mr Warren’s rotation is turnips, wheat, peas, then new grass, but there are occasions when a paddock is put from old grass straight into wheat. One such paddock had yielded 73 bushels an acre, and Mr Warren said he planned to put it into wheat for a second year in succession. When the paddocks are drilled in peas, a ton of lime is applied, a further ton being spread when the paddock is sown in new grass. Mr Warren said that under this rotation, wheat yields were rising and the pea yields were reasonable. Mr Warren is not in doubt about the wisdom of sowing peas the season before new pasture. After peas, he said, he has found the new grass gets away to a very good start.

Pastures are topdressed with 44/46 super at the rate of 3cwt a year, and Mr Warren said this was the third year he had been using super to such an extent. To a question, he said he had not made tests to determine the difference , in response between 2cwt and 3cwt an acre. Financially, he estimated the difference between these applications at about £l3O.

Mr C. P. Whatman, senior advisory officer for the Department of Agriculture at Ashburton, said he thought such heavy applications were necessary only in the early life of the pasture, but that the maintenance needs would be less.

To a question, Mr Smith said there had been no response to sulphur in the dis-

trict, but the responses obtained from rising amounts of super were progressively greater.

Questioned on the prevalence of porina, Mr Warren said he had sown D.D.T. super with his young grass, then sprayed the pasture the following season. Mr Ryde said he thought this was duplication. Would not the D.D.T. sown in the ground be still effective when the spraying was carried out? he asked. Mr Warren replied that he had done it as an “insurance.” All told, he had sprayed 92 acres for porina. Asked by Mr Whatman why he grew peas, and whether he thought there must be a limit to growing them, especially if they got to rockbottom price levels, Mr Warren said that if he could get 14s a bushel that was getting close to wheat prices, and further, peas provided a good weed-free seed bed.

Mr Smith thought that peas could be regarded as an alternative to sheep. After

wheat the question always arose: should one grass down or grow peas? Peas had only to better £l5 an acre to give a higher return than sheep.

On a block of 40 acres on the Mayfield side of the South Hinds river, the party saw a ten-acre crop of swedes, at present being grazed by 310 Border Leicester-Romney ewe hoggets. These were put to the ram on June 10. Mr Warren said that last year, when there was a bumper crop, he was able to winter ewes on swedes at the rate of 1250 an acre a week. Asked why he favoured swedes as against turnips, he said swedes were the bestproducing crop on the farm, because one could feed so many sheep on so few acres. Last year he had grown 20 acres of swedes and eight of them were either sold or ploughed under. Autumn-saved pasture of which Mr Warren has 65 acres, was the main topic when the party visited the homestead block.

Mr Smith suggested that farmers wintering by this means, in conjunction with hay should plan to enter the spring with the grass not too heavily grazed as this greatly affected the regrowth rate. On the wintering capacity of autumn-saved pasture, he thought 1350 ewes should get by on an acre a day. On the question of how long ewes should be grazed on the saved pasture each day, Mr Ryde said he thought the ewes could get enough with 20 minutes grazing twice a day. They could then be put back on to hay. At Lincoln it was possible to get the ewes through the winter on pasture and hay, but that would be difficult in the Anama district. He agreed it was hard to get some sheep to take to perennial ryegrass straw. It could be made more palatable with powdered molasses.

Asked why he advocated pasture and grass seed straw when he could feed lucerne, Mr Ryde said this suited a mixed cropping farm. He agreed one needed lucerne for hoggets.

The subject of feeding grass seed straw to ewes was touched upon again when the party visited the third block of 140 acres which Mr Warren described as excellent soil. Mr Warren has a new Ariki rye grass pasture and it was pointed out that one of its advantages was it soft straw, so making it much more palatable to the sheep. The rotation here is swedes, wheat, white clover (undersown), fallow and new grass, or a second crop of wheat after the clover, then peas before new grass.

Mr Warren carries 1300 ewes, (450 being Romneys and 850 Border LeicesterRomney) 310 hoggets of the same cross breeding, 60 wether hoggets and 21 rams.

The cropping programme this year consists of 96 acres of wheat, 44 acres of peas and 44 acres to be closed for small seeds. With 14 acres of turnips and Italian ryegrass sold for grazing, Mr Warren agreed that he was “sailing a bit close to the wind,” but expected to get through to the spring without feed difflculties.