Some Aspects of More Cropping

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31107, 9 July 1966, Page 10

Some Aspects of More Cropping

Turning to some aspects of | the Wilson brothers’ farm, where last season 170 acres was in crop, including 127 acres in wheat, Mr Ryde said that there was a possibility that the wheat acreage could be doubled, but this would interfere with stock production which was at a high level. The ewe flock consisted of an excellent line of 1520 Romneys and they were giving a lambing percentage of 125 per cent when mated to Romney and Southdown ewes and the ewes were clipping lljlb of wool. Mr Ryde said that he considered that some of the older pastures up to about 11 years old were excellent from a stock point of view but should probably have been turned over somewhat earlier if maximum crop production was to be the aim of the farmers. The Wilson brothers, Mr Ryde said, had been among the earliest in the bulk handling of grain, and they had an excellent system of bulk handling and storage of some 200 tons of bulk wheat. But any suggestion of increasing cropping, he said, would place a burden on the existing labour force, including the two owners farming in a partnership assisted by two pre-agricultural diploma students. If the cropping pro-

gramme was to be expanded they would probably have to employ a married man with, of course, the need for a new house.

Mr Ryde said that over the last few years the Wilsons had adopted a policy of felling and removing old shelter belts which in . the treelines themselves and on either side of the lines took up about 50 acres of the farm.

They had been using a crawler tractor with giant rippers to get the roots out and were replacing these trees with two rows consisting of pines on the windward side and thujas, cedars, arizonicas and oregons on the leeward side.

This had been costly work and the returns from sale of the timber had hardly covered the cost of the removal of the trees.

The field-day visitors were given an impressive demonstration of the effectiveness of stategically placed shots of gelignite in completely shattering a stump at a cost of about 10s a stump. Under this system a clean burn of roots was also obtained without the problem of soil interfering with the burn. This was the cheapest and most effective

way of dealing with the stumps.

Associated with the old shelter have been infestations of barley grass and Mr F. C. Allen, a field research officer of the Department of Agriculture, made the point that barley grass was extremely difficult to eradicate under such conditions, the seed remaining viable under dry conditions.