GRAZING EFFICIENCY

Dominion, Volume 32, Issue 148, 18 March 1939, Page 4 (Supplement)

GRAZING EFFICIENCY

An Australian Calculation

A remarkable assertion was made that under normal grazing (in Australia) the efficiency of pasture utilization was but 40 per cent, by a responsible writer in “Stock and Land,” an Australian farming journal. It would be extremely interesting to hear what “efficiency in grazing” was attained under of best pasture management in New Zealand. The statement reads:—“lt amounts to .probably 40 per cent, of the herbage which grows in an average year. A rough estimate of the efficiency of grazing as a’ method of using pasture growth may be made if we assume tlTat a full-grown sheep consumes aTout 10001 b. dry matter a year. Most farmers know the average yield: of grass hay which their land will produce. “If this yield is calculated in lb. and divided by 1000, it gives a reasonable idea of what the carrying capacity would be if all the herbage that grows was utilised.

“For example, if an average yield of grass hay is one ton, or 22401 b., we divide this figure by 1000, and the answer is approximately.2J sheep. It is commonly found that under grazing alone only about 60 per cent, of the herbage is used, even though the pastures are overstocked! for several months of the year. That in fact is The position ; the pastures are over-stocked for several months and under-stocked in the flush period, when waste occurs. The loss of herbage is serious in itself, and the position ip made worse by the fact that the sheep carried have probably bad too little to eat for several months. There is only one widely practicable method of largely preventing this loss, .and at the same time keeping the sheep uniformly well fed, and that is by fodder conservation.”