USING ANIMAL MANURES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 6 January 1939, Page 3

USING ANIMAL MANURES

On the dairy farm, cow dung accumulates both in the holding-yards and in the grazing paddocks. Periodically the manure about the yards is collected and usually distributed on cultivation areas as fertiliser. Cow manure contains a moderate amount of fertilising materials which come originally from the pasture area and to use the manure on crops to be sent away from the farm is virtually “robbing the pastures to keep up the fertility of the ploughed fields.” Far more serious, however, is the neglect of many farmers to make good use of the manure left in the grazing of their calving. . It was unnecessary to keep the healthy and infected groups separate at pasture, but in order to avoid mistakes it was better, if possoble, to milk the healthy group in a separate shed or separate wing. Attention should also be paid to hygiene; for example, milkers should be advised to wash their hands and dip paddocks by the stock. A dropping allowed to lie undisturbed, in addition to losing much of its fertilising value to the air, promotes in that particular spot a rank growth of grass which stock find distasteful. If full advantage is to be taken of the fertilising value of the manure, the droppings should be spread evenly over the paddocks before they become caked. The dung may be distributed with a special pasture harrow, or by running an ordinary peg harrow over the area, and about which several lengths of barbed wire are losely coiled. A'weatherboard or similar type of timber drag is quite satisfactory, but its use on wet dung in dry weather should be avoided in order to prevent the fouling of the pasture by extensive smearing.