200 



The Country Gcntlcmajis Magazine 



THE PRODUCTION OF PASTURE IN DAIRY FARMING* 



DAIRY farming is a combination of the 

 two systems of arable and pasture, and 

 a knowledge of both is necessary for its successful 

 practice. A certain amount of dairy stock is kept ou 

 the pasture for the production of milk, and a portion 

 comes under cultivation to produce winter food for 

 them. This arable portion is varied according to the 

 quality of the soil and the climate of the locality, but 

 in the medium soils of Ayrshire fully more than a 

 Scotcli acre is required for fodder for each cow. The 

 pasture fields are broken up in rotation, and after a 

 system of cropping, which must also be varied accord- 

 ing to circumstances, they are again sown down 

 to pasture, and it is to this department of daily 

 farming that I have been requested to call your atten- 

 tion at this time. The production of rich pasture 

 ought to be the first aim of every dairy farmer, as on 

 the quality of the pasture greatly depends the amount 

 of success he may attain in his calling. Cows fed on 

 rich pasture attain a greater size than if fed on poor, 

 and when sold, either as store stock or in the fat 

 market, command a correspondingly higher price. 

 The produce also partakes greatly of the character 

 of the pasture on which cows are fed, and that best 

 adapted for improving the carcase and laying on fat will 

 give the richest produce, and that which yields the ani- 

 mal the greatest amount of food with the least trouble 

 is that which enables it to yield the greatest quantity 

 of milk. To have the fields well covered with luxuriant 

 pasture not only improves the stock, increases the 

 quantity and improves the quality of their produce, but 

 it forms the best guarantee that we can have for an 

 abundant crop of grain when they come under a rota- 

 tion. Land covered with a rich and productive sward 

 improves in condition more rapidly than that which is 

 covered with a poor and scanty vegetation. Under a 

 rich sward there is an accumulation of vegetable matter 

 ■which undergoes decomposition when it is turned over, 

 and yields a large supply of excellent food for the 

 cereal plants, and will produce a heavier grain and better 

 straw than an ordinary coating of farm-yard manure. 

 To keep the fields well covered with a rich sward, 

 then, is the best receipt for successful farming. Rich 

 pasture consists in a close cover of those grasses which 

 yield the greatest amount of nutrition to stock feeding 

 on them, and for its production it is necessary that the 

 land should be thoroughly drained if it is not naturally 

 dry, for all the best sorts of grasses dislike a wet 

 bottom when they are young, and will not root deep 

 enough in it to bear the vicissitudes of the seasons, but 

 will die out as soon as they have ripened their seeds. 



* Paper read before the Ayrshire Farmers' Club, by Mr 

 Robert White. 



The land should be gathered into ridges, with the 

 drains between, the breadth of the ridges being regu- 

 lated by the wideness at A\'hich the drains are neces- 

 .sary. It ought also to be deeply cultivated, so as to 

 render it open and porous to make it penetrable to the 

 atmosphere and the roots of the plants, and to allow 

 the rain water to percolate freely through it. By this 

 means it is less affected either by protracted wetness or 

 by severe drought. The roots of the plants are struck 

 deeper into the soil, and, having more scope, a greater 

 number of feeders are sent out, and the plant being 

 more copiously supplied with food, is enabled to pro- 

 duce a greater amount of herbage. 



It is also necessary to maintain the land in good 

 manurial condition. All grasses have their own indi- 

 vidual propensities, and are indigenous to certain soils, 

 conditions, and climates. In naturally dry and rich 

 soils the better class of grasses grow spontaneously, 

 while the poorer soils are clothed with those which 

 contain a greater proportion of woody fibre, nature 

 providing the land only with such a covering as it is 

 able to support. The better grasses may be intro- 

 duced into poor soil and struggle for a miserable exis- 

 tence for a season, but unless they find a ready supply 

 of those elements which form their structure they must 

 inevitably die out, while with good cultivation and a 

 liberal manuring they may be retained and produce a 

 rich and nutritious sward. We must, therefore, en- 

 deavour to bring our land into a condition similar to 

 that to which the better class of gra.s.ses are indi- 

 genous. 



The tendency of daiiy farming, as generally prac- 

 tised, is to impoverish the soil of phosphates by their 

 continued drainage both for the grass and the arable 

 lands. Of the cereals raised the greatest portion is 

 sold off the land, and only the straw retained to be 

 converted into manure, and returned to the soil, and 

 the produce of the dairy is also almost entirely re- 

 moved. Unless the dairy stock receive a considerable 

 amount of nutritious food during the winter months, 

 as they are either producing milk, two-thirds of the 

 inorganic constitutents of which consists of phosphates, 

 or they are nourishing the embiyo of a future genera- 

 tion, of the bones of which phosphoric acid is a prin- 

 cipal component, the manure produced is compara- 

 tively poor, and alone is incapable of maintaining the 

 fertility of the soil. The quality of the manure, how- 

 ever, is considerably improved by the use of an extra 

 amount of feeding. The fattening of cattle during 

 winter produces a greatly superior manure, and fatten- 

 ing on the pastures has not such an exhaustive 

 tendency as either the rearing of stock or the keep- 

 ing of dairy cows. While cattle are fattening they 

 assimilate an excess of the fatty matters of the food. 



