FARMERS' COLUMN.

Taihape Daily Times, Volume 7, Issue 116, 18 January 1915, Page 2

FARMERS' COLUMN.

GRAZING paddocks. A. paddock that is composed of English grasses implies considerable stockcarrying power, and it is therefore Jnadvisable to graze sheep in it for too long a time continuously. Perennial grazing of such a pasture with a fairly full complement of sheep means vitiation of the herbage ,and this is followed by reduced condition and health of tne •stock and reduced profits. If continuous understocking is pursued, on the other hand, it will mean less pasture poisoning by excreta, but it is a wasteful plan, ¥o.r the feed outstrips consumption, and .what js not trampled and soiled grows fibrous and unsuited to sheep. Moreover, during a long-continued wet time the damp-retaining grass will not help to ward off footrot. It may, therefore, be conceded that-short, heavy stocking, so that all feed may be consumed quickly and without waste, is the plan_ Several paddocks have to be available to enable this to be done, and the bettor tlie land is the more fencing it can profitably stand. The exact time when the stock, under such a scheme of change grazing, should be removed from one paddock to another, is important, and is best left to (he judgment of the grazier, who knows what feed there is ahead in the other paddocks; but care may be taken to see that the grazing is not done too close, particularly when the weather is cold and inclement. This may be easier said than practised, but collateral root ana fodder feed provision or well-planned grazing arrangements will see the ruKo through. If grass is grazed too close in cold weather the plant's crown becomes exposed, growth.is arrested and vitality injured much more than cursory observation will show, or the temporary profit on the feeding stock recompense for. Nothing in Nature—man, animal, plant—cares for naked exposure to the cold. They all seek shelter,' and flowers, buds, leaves 'contract or close up In cold, and expand and grow in warm weather. The grasses of the open fiebT, in communistic fashion, provide shelter one to the other', and the leaves of eaen shelter its central or seed growth When the field is stripped" bare and close in cold, or indeed in hot weather —for shelter is required from heat as well as from cold—-it is obviously against the interest nf the grasses, and their bulk of season's growth is much delayed and reduced. And every time it is done it causes the decay of some plants. The understocking of a paddock for •i lengthened period to enable continuous viiniiinaf of stock, has an additional objection to those mentioned. The animals seek out the better grasses and feed them so attentively that, come dry or wet weather, they knock about and uproot many plants. A favourite grass may be, naturally or in a particular soil, a shallow rooter. The inferior grasses escape this over-attention. They would under heavy stocking be included in the meal, and be eaten fresh and sweet, • and not tackled after more or less vitiation as in an understocked paddock. The picking and choosing of the better grasses means that the absolutely inferior ones are left alone to shelter themselves' and' r'o"' seed, ■ and' are ready always to jump the claim of the better grasses that may,.be destroyed t

Every farmer may have a defined rule with respect to the size of his paddocks, in accordance with the nature .of his farming operations' extent of his prop- | orty. and quality of the land. If lie is sheopfiirmiug on an extensive scale, ho cannot have a network of small paddock.",, nor need lie, for here invariably the land is not first class, and may not yarrant heavy fencing; Nevertheless. he.wants several paddocks, large as they may be, wherein to place his flocks . -But the small sheepfarmer can rule, according to the shape of his farm, quality of land, shelter, water supply, etc., whether he should have an average paddock of 100, 50, or 25 acres. Some intensive sheepfnrmers go to the extent of four or five acre paddocks for sheep alone, placing several hundred in one for a week or two at a stretch..,... Where the land is good the fence is a cheap means of increasing returns, but I if the flock is a permanent breeding line, this must be accompanied by scope for exercise. There is no sheep condi-tion-maker and digest ivo-troublc-rcsist-er like fresh, clean, sweet grass, and resting a paddock will give it an opportunity to cleanse with rain and-weather. Again may be noted the dominating influence of Nature towards man, animal, : insect, plant, even the busy bee, in demanding rest. But man is the most unfortunately ill-rested of the lot, and he tries hard to-mnkc the rest of Nature, .including his grass paddocks. ■as fool* ishly restless as himself. When Die pasture land is inferior, there may often be a doubt as to how much it may be subdivided into smaller paddocks, but unless it carries but a fractional part or' a sheep to the acre all the year round it should stand subdivision, and the payableness of subdivision should be easily figured out, for carrying power may often lie increased 50 per cent, by sub-fencing. With several paddocks on a place, each one could be allowed to go to seed in turn if thought desirable, and at any rate ■the sheep's propensity for chasing and living on the belter plants at the good time of the year, and feeding on the: inferior ones at the bad time, when they'. are most in nutritious, is curbed. —Tophouse in "Pastoralist 's Review."