310 



Production of Meat on Pastures. 



[JlTLY r 



While the influence on production of a good grazing season 

 at Cockle Park is shown by these figures, it must not be assumed 

 that they necessarily represent the gains made by the store stock 

 of the country in good and bad years. The actual differences 

 are much less than the 50 to 60 per cent, found in this case; 

 for these experimental pastures are grazed so as to make the 

 most of the herbage they grow, whereas in actual farm practice 

 it is impossible to secure the full advantages of a first-rate year. 

 We have not stock enough in the country to consume all that 

 grows in a bountiful season, the numbers of our live stock being 

 adjusted to the grazing available in average years. 



These ten-acre fields were referred to in my 1915 paper as 

 representing store pastures of ordinary quality; but it may be 

 remarked that the actual yield secured from them is far in 

 excess of the average yield of the grass land of the United 

 Kingdom. From information collected in the course of the War 

 it is estimated that the average yield of meat by all grass land 

 (meadows and pastures) lies between 70 and 75 lb. per acre; for 

 pastures only it is about 7 lb. less. 



Scope for Improvement in our Grass Land.- -The quantity 

 of meat to be expected from the three types of pasture discussed 

 above, and the low average production of the pastures of the 

 United Kingdom, clearly point to the scope for improvement 

 which our grazings offer; moreover, it is not in quantity only 

 that differences occur in the meat output of rich and of poor 

 laud. There is a wide difference in the food value of the prime 

 meat produced by the rich grazings of the English Midlands and 

 the lean meat which forms the carcass increase of cattle and 

 sheep grazing the poorest pastures. Weight for weight the 

 former is worth from three to four times the latter as a source of 

 energy. Thus if both quantity and quality be taken into account, 

 the food value of the produce of an acre of rich grass may equal 

 the food value of the produce of forty acres of the poorest 

 cultivated grazings. 



Methods of improving grass land have been fully dealt with 

 in one of the Ministry's recent publications,* and will not be 

 referred to here ; but it may be observed that although it is 

 beyond our skill to secure a forty-fold increase, by converting 

 such grass land as that of Cockle Park into postures having the 

 quality of the rich Midland grazings, it is quite possible to 



* Manuring of Pastures for Meat and Milk, by Professor Somerville. 

 Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries Miscellaneous Publication Xo. 30, 

 price 6d. post free. 



