In September 1962 the Tussock Grasslands and Mountain Lands Institute produced a Directory of Research listing projects and personnel concerned with the tussock grasslands and mountain lands. The number of people involved was about 100 and the number of separate projects more than 150. It is obvious that, in trying to survey advances being made in the tussock grasslands, I cannot mention more than a few of these workers. Failure to mention them does not mean that I do not appreciate the value of their work; merely that a paper such as this should be more than just a catalogue
Efficient pasture utilisation is all too frequently considered to be simply a matter of getting as high a proportion as possible of the pasture grown inside a grazing animal by fair means or foul. But this is only half the story; indeed it may be less than half the story. Animal husbandry techniques designed to ensure that the pasture consumed is converted to animal produce with the highest possible efficiency are no less important and are equally a part of the overall picture of efficient pasture utilisation. By pinpointing weaknesses in both grazing management and in animal husbandry plans it should be possible to show how we must act if we wish to improve the efficiency of pasture utilisation.
Since our last conference held here in 1951 there has been a steady increase in production throughout Taranaki, but there have been, no spectacular changes in grassland farming
The defining of the ideal balance of chemical compounds in the feed of ruminants, with their two-stage digestive system, is most difficult. We must consider not only the compounds as they exist in the plant itself, but also the products of their microbial fermentation in the animal’s first two stomachs. A toxic substance may be detoxified or a harmless compound rendered harmful. The mineral balance may be altered in the animal and vitamins synthesised. The energy providing substances of the food are converted into an entirely different class of compounds in the rumen before being utilised by the animal. In this regard the physical state of the food may be as important as its chemical composition and the quality of the herbage may have to be defined in terms of the animal end product required
At a very impressionable age I sat the the feet of a great master, an extension officer who expounded the principles of good pasture management. Some of the things he said have stayed with me over the years: “Grass is green gold”. “It takes grass to grow grass.” A little later in life, from one of his disciples, ,I learnt another principle: “Graze in situ”. Largely from these three maxims, plus the necessity of feeding an increasing number of cows on a fixed acreage, I have evolved my present system of pasture management. Naturally my viewpoint as a practising farmer will be a fairly narrow one, my experiences being largely confined to the southern Hawke’s Bay district. Nevertheless I hope it will be an intensive one, an enlargement as it were
Subject matter for this paper has, in part, been taken from. the result of a survey carried out by South Taranaki Provincial Executive of Federated Farmers to determine the major problems confronting farmers in the area.
The greatest problem besetting the sheep farming industry in Taranaki is in administration and design of our land laws. They are designed to cover the whole of New Zealand and also to apply to our fattening lands as well as our hill country. The hill country of Hawke’s Bay and Wairarapa needs very different treatment from the hill country of Taranaki.
Hay is an important crop to the New Zealand. farmer. Over 800,000 acres of lucerne and pasture are cut and conserved in this form each year compared with 180,000 acres for silage. Hay is pleasant to handle compared with silage, but requires more physical labour, as complete mechanisation from field to storage to stock has not advanced to the same degree. Also it is more vulnerable to the weather. As a result considerable effort and ingenuity have been applied to reduce both field losses and physical effort, either by endeavouring to mechanise completely present methods of conservation or by examining alternative forms.
Annual phosphate topdressing has been needed on the yellowbrown loams of Taranaki to maintain vigorous productive pastures. There is, however, a wide range of opinion as to what is the optimum rate of topdressing and what is the optimum phosphorus status for pasture production
In this talk I intend to deal only with some of the major soils derived from volcanic ash, not with sand country or the hill soils derived from mudstone and sandstone. These volcanic soils of Taranaki suffer from two major deficiencies, phosphorus and potassium.
The area I am going to speak to you about is exactly the same 12,991 acres as that referred to in my paper to the 1951 Grassland Conference at New Plymouth. This area, with the exception of one papa farm, consists of land which was taken over in bush from the Crown about 1906. After bushfelling, burning, and grassing, the area had reverted so badly that by the 1920s the farms were abandoned to the mortgagees, who in the main were stock and station agents or companies. They in turn endeavoured to farm these areas, but without success, and finally I bought them in 1928 and 1942 for less than &4 per acre. I may say that the companies lost heavily and for many years these areas were, and still are, “blacklisted” in regard to raising of finance. Access to them up to 1920 was by clay roads and bridle tracks. There were no schools and there was little incentive for anyone to stay on the land.
Ariki (previously referred to as long-rotation ryegrass or new hybrid ryegrass) is a new variety bred from crosses between shortrotation ryegrass and N.Z. Perennial ryegrass. The success of Corkilll in breeding short-rotation from croSses between Italian ryegrass and perennial ryegrass led to this new improvement programme aimed at breeding a ryegrass with far more persistency than short-rotation but retaining its excellent seasonal growth and palatability. Corkill” was in charge of this programme from 1951 to 1957; sinde then it has been under the control of the author.
Drainage has been of primary importance in the development of much of New Zealand’s lowland country for agricultural use. Without drainage much land is too wet to carry stock and machinery (in a physical sense) or to permit the establishment and maintenance of suitable pasture species. The necessity to drain such land if it is to be farmed at all is beyond dispute.
I feel that I must start off by explaining that the title of this address is something of a misnomer. I started off with the intention of telling you about as many of our insect pests of grassland as I could, but once I started on the grass grub it was clear I could not do this, as my time was being completely taken up with this one pest and I decided to ,devote the whole paper to give you an appreciation of the control position concerning grass grub today and to describe some of our plans for the future.
Up to the present we have been dependent for our knowledge of the nutrient requirements of New Zealand soils largely on the results of field trials established on. classified soil types, At the same time there has been much laboratory examination both of soils and pastures in connection with these trials. Although the field trial has served us well in the past and will probably always be regarded as the final arbiter in deciding the presence or absence of nutrient deficiency, it must be admitted that it has some drawbacks.
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