For Times of Need

Sun (Auckland), Volume III, Issue 768, 14 September 1929, Page 31

For Times of Need

Supply of Supplementary Fodder

WITH the coming of the warmer weather, and the close proximity of tiie spi mg sowing season, farmers throughout the province are called upon to give their attention to the problem of supplementary fodder requirements, not only for the summer months, but also for the period right up to the spring of next year. The careful farmer today always has a little extra fodder on which to draw in times of need.

While too much attention cannot be wj T »n to the question of top-dressing, Jtiere is always the other extreme, jfaimers, in many parts today, are insert to think that top-dressing does *way with the need for supplementary crops, and are confining their attention solely to grass pastures. In ftu, main, this is well enough, hut there are always times, in droughts er periods of protracted cold and wet, *hen a little extra fodder means all {he difference between profit and loss M the season’s operations. Top-dress-tog can be worked very well in conjunction with a systematic programme nf crop cultivation. The cultivation of supplementary props has proved very beneficial to far-sighted farmers in the past; topdressing ie certainly the greatest peed of the farmer today. Nevertheless. just because the last-named has bow" been accepted as an essential and necessary adjunct to successful terming, it does not seem logical to argue that the cultivation of supplementary crops should go by the board. Lulled to a sense of false security by a series of good seasons, farmers jnay be prepared to argue that the ordinary grass pasture is good onough. This is certainly not the Base if the highest degree of profitable production is to be looked for. Farmers hit by the drought of two geasons ago should remember this. The essential factor about supplementary cropping is this: Under correct control there should be no waste, even in years of plenty. The silage pit has made it possible to carry surplus feed for several seasons in the best of condition. Disciples of advanced farming methods go so far now as to state that, summer or winter, the farm giiould be capable of carrying an even number of stock: Fodder conserved in times of plenty should be available in times of shortage; to stock up to rapacity merely because there is a temporary flush of feed is now con-

sidered bad business. With smaller paddocks, and the constant moving of stock, farmers are making it possible to regulate the growth of feed and get a greater proportionate return from the land. Where there is supplementary cropping an even greater proportionate return is possible. On a model farm of approximately 40 acres near to the city of Auckland, small paddocks, fertilisers and a comprehensive programme of supplementary cropping have allowed one to prove it possible to carry nearly 40 head of dairy cattle and an average of 700 pigs throughout the whole of the year. Before the present proprietor started in business the land was regarded as worthless, and w r as covered with stunted scrub. The writer is not prepared to go into the question of w'hat should be grown for supplementary feed. That is a question for the individual farmer according to what his soil will support, and according also to what gives the best results in his particular district. For green feed he has for choice such crops as maize and lucerne, both of which make up into excellent silage; lucerne on its own can be converted into hay if so desired. Too little attention, it seems, is paid to the pumpkin in this district. As an economic and prolific grower it has few equals, and it is certainly appreciated by the stock, without tainting the milk. Mangels can also be used with pumpkins to balance a ration of hay or ensilage during the winter. Time and time again it has been shown that tlio ordinary grass pasture is not sufficient to carry the dairy herd through a period of dry weather, or at other times when there is a temporary shortage of feed. The reduced cream cheques of two seasons ago, and some of the emaciated herds seen on certain Auckland pastures last winter, proved that. Farmers throughout the w r hole province should seriously consider what portion of their farm they can profitably put down in cultivation over the next two months.