New permanent pastures as greenfeed in Canterbury

Abstract

The Canterbury farmer depends to a great degree upon supplementary greenfeeds as part of the diet of sheep and dairy cows, but the actual extent to which he is dependent upon them is seldom fully realised until the occurrence of a very dry period. For instance, the low lambing percentages and high mortality in the Spring of 1933 can be attributed in general to defective or unbalanced nutrition arising from feed shortage. This feed shortage occurred in the Autumn and Spring of that year. Both seasons were dry, and supplementary greenfeed crops were very much reduced in production. Had there been ample and better balanced, greenfeeds for Autumn and Spring flushing and for lambing, more lambs would have been born and more would have survived. The question now arises as to whether, in the establishment of permanent pastures, sufficient greenfeed is not thereby provided so that ordinary temporary greenfeeds may be largely dispensed with, or at least, reduced in area with advantage. It is the object of this paper to discuss this question and to show that new permanent grass can provide: at least a part of the greenfeed ration.