PASTURE WASTAGE

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 3, Issue 663, 16 October 1933, Page 2

PASTURE WASTAGE

IMPORTAN CE AND MEANS OF . EFFICIENT SUMMER . USE. USEFUL GUIDANCE. (Contributed by the Fields Division, Agricultural Department.) In view of _ the prevailing ddfficult financial position in farming, it is particularly desirable to eliminate all avoidable wastage, and at this season farmers may well direet their attention to two matters of current farm management that not only lead commonly to serious wastage but also are inter-related. In the first place is; the fact that on thousands of farms some of the feed produced by grassland during late spring and early summer is not utilised to the best advantage. From October onwards, for several weeks, on many farms, grazing is of a type which allows a portion of the pasture growth to reach the flowering stage. Apart from exceptional circumstances, flower head development is defindtely undesirable. It results in feed of markedly lower digestibility, wh'ereas feed of high digestibility is a prime need both of good milking stock, whether they be cows, ewes or sows, and of growing stock, such as calves and lambs. It results also in feed badly balanced in comparison with short, leafy pasture in its contents of the various nutritive suhstances, among which mineral constituents are of prime importance in bone and milk production. It results, further, in some of this feed being wasted. It is likely to result in undesirable changes in the pasture swards, particularly if they are really good ones and youthful ones, a.nd i.t may also result in a diminished supply of fresh, leafy feed from pastures during the critical period that is experienced frequently after mid-summer. To sum up, flower-heads development in pastures under grazing during late spring and early summer is as a rule undesirable for several separate reasons. Inadequate Fceding. In the second place, a suhstantial proportion of the serious stock wastage that characterises New Zsaland farming, and that is much in evidence at this season, may he attributed primar.ily to inadequate winter fending. It is widely agreed as a physiolo- ' gical fact that the lowered vitality of stock consequent on inadequate winter feeding makes th'em much more 'subject in the spring to udder disorders, to digestive disord^rs, and to hi*eeding troubles. Oflen disease will pass by the animals rohust by virtue of good feeding when it will seriously affect the animals weakened by the semi-starvation that even in this, a relatively good season, is so common. Stock wastage through disease is such a heavy drain on livestock industries that modification in farm management based on a, more thorough realisation of the extent to which under feeding in winter contrihutes to the incidence of stock disorders is a matter of general moment. It is surely fortunate that ensilage, one of the most important means of hringing about better winter feeding of stock, will also assist greatly in avoiding in late spiiing and early summer the hadly controlled gx^azing of pastures which leads to develop-

ment of flowering organs, with the various attendant disadvantages which already have been mentioned. In a normal season it would be a distinctly beneficial modification of current management either to introduce ensilage or to practise it much more extensively than has heen practised on many of those farms on which it has already ibeen given a place. Itj is often well to supplement en-'siilage-making by some hay-making, partly hecause often when a period of good hay-making weather is being experienced some surplus grass remains to be harvested, and it is then quite good practice to turn such grass into hay, and partly bc cause hay is a more suitable complementary feed than silage to roots, which should be utilised for winter feeding on the great majority of farms on which ensilage is well worth while. Harrowing Benieificial. Another seasonable practice which wiiil tend to reduce the tendency towards the development later on of the flowering habit in patches of the sward is grass harrowing, thorough enough to bring about even distribution of stock droppings before they have heen deposited long enough. to result in patches of rank, unrelished growth. A feature of grass harrowing whiich is of some moment under present economic conditions is that on the great majority of farms it calls for little or no outlay. Usually it may he done as a routine job by the labour regularly employed on the farms, many of which are , already squipped with the necessary harrows, md. the power to work them. In new of this, it is to some extent dif-

ficult to understand why the pastures on many such farms suffer for want of suffijcient harrowing. Much of the value of ensilage-mak- ' ing, hay-making and harrowing as pasture control measures will be lost qnkss they are associated ynth. effective grazinig management which consists essentially of alternate relatively heavy stocldng and spelling during late spring and early summer of the fields under grazing. Systematic Grazing. In view of the fact that recominendations about methods of systematic grazing have, during recent. years, at ■times differed in material respects, ' seems well to poant o'ut that effective ' grazing has been carried out by means of: — i 1. Even, but .not really hard, graz: ing. of fields during spring and early summer. 2. .Short grazing periods of one to two days separated by relatively short periods of spelling of the swards — spells of seven to eight days frequently giving good results. Five facts of consdderable practical importance are worthy of mention in respect to grazing hroadly along these lines: — Firstly, there is no call for punishing. treatment of stock in milk. 'Secondly, there is no necessity for the use of store-stock as "followers" of milking stock in the manner which has been so widely advocated overseas and at times in New Zealand as necessary to success in grazing con'trol. Thirdly, the advent of a dry summer or autumn period is not an occasion of so much-danger as in a system which involves hard summer grazing of fields. Fourthly, the absence of hard grazing mjinimises the injury tQ valuable pasture plants and lessens the period occupied in recovery and return to the stage of maximum rate of growth. Fiifthly, it does not call for any abnormal degree of suhdivision — the unusually small and numerous paddocks which have at times heen suggested are not required. Further information about the detailed carrying out of effective grazing management at this period may be obtained from local officers of the Fields Division of the Department of Agriculture. Increasecl Production. The combined effect of effective grazing management, ' ensilage , and' judicious harrowing may he expected to be good utiliisation of the late feed which is produced. The full importance of the efficient utilisation is not realised widely. It may be gauged to some extent by the fact that im~ provemtnt in grass utiliisation has, heen associated with increases of 40 per cent. and even greater increases in production. Of particular moment in times of economic stress is the fact that these increases have heen acbieved with a relatively small extra outlay. Their financial position to-day may prevent many farmers from attaining in their grass farming as high a standard as they would like hy means of such measures as top-dress-nng and drainage, hut seldom will a farmer's financial position prevent hjm from devoting his energy towards more effective utilisation in respect to whiich many have immense scope for improvement.