Manawatu Grows Less Certified Ryegrass

Manawatu Times, Volume 62, Issue 17, 21 January 1937, Page 2

Manawatu Grows Less Certified Ryegrass

WEATHER CAUSES PROBABLE DECREASE OF 30 PER CENT. Owing to tho unfavourable and late spring, the amount of ryegrass grown in tho Manawatu this year for certification will probably bo thirty per cent, less than last year, it was stated yesterday by a representative of the Department of Agriculture. This season there has been a total of 700 acres of pasture saved for the purpose. Ryegrass and white clover seed are grown in this district, which may bo termed the Manawatu, Kairanga and Sandon areas, but the total acreage of white clover would possibly be not more than 50.

Field inspections had shown that the yield would bo considerably lower this year than it was last, it was stated. With the present continued wet weather the position had become even more complicated because a large amount of tho seed-bearing grass had been cut and was in tho stook waiting to dry out before being threshed. An interesting point was that, with three exceptions, tho only areas appearing to be producing what is considered an average yield were those which had been sown down in pedigress seed, tho reporter was informed. The pedigreo seed was that which had its ancestry in the departmental plots, where selected certified seed from a nucleus plot was later sown in the field, that crop producing the mother seed for the crops now indicating the best yields. The reason for the lower acreage being set aside for seed production this year was given as the increased attraction offered in pastoral farming. In Hawke’s Bay, it is understood, there has been a reduction in acreage also. In the North Island the amount of pasture set aside for certified seed production varies with probable returns to be had from pastoral farming, whereas in the South Island, where cereal farming is undertaken to a greater extent, there is not such a fluctuation from season to season.