FEEDING OFF SPRING WHEAT

Southland Times, Issue 24231, 14 September 1940, Page 13

FEEDING OFF SPRING WHEAT

RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS The very vigorous growth of wheat in various parts this spring raises again the question of the advisability of feeding off wheat in the spring. Experiments were made on this problem by the Wheat Research Institute over a period of four years, and the conclusions reached were, briefly, that wheat should not be- fed off merely for the sake of feeding off, but that it should be fed off if it appeared likely that it would go _ down as it approached ripeness, or if there was a shortage of other feed. i In each year, the trials carried out by the institute were made on four plots of one-tenth of an acre which were grazed, and four similar plots in the same paddocks which were not grazed. The variety of wheat was Tuscan, and it was usually about five inches high when grazing started. Grazing began on September 14, in the earliest year, and September 21 in the latest year. It is generally considered to be a good practice to feed the wheat off quickly with a large number of sheep, and this condition was imitated in the experiments, as the feeding was always completed in three to six days. The results were not at all conclusive, because in one year the unigrazed plots gave an" increased yield of eight bushels an acre, and in another year the grazed plots gave an increase of three bushels an acre. In the other tw2 ; ears there was no difference in

the yields. In nearly every case, however, as the harvest approached, the grazed plots were found to be a few days later, a few inches shorter, and noticeably more upright in growth. The ungrazed plots sometimes showed a tendency to go down, but the grazed areas appa ently had stronger straw. It is the usual practice to harrow fed off wheat after the sheep have gone. From the experiments, it may be concluded that . the effects of grazing on yield vary with the weather experienced after the grazing is done.