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.[Show full abstract]
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