ROLE OF MATUA PRAIRIE GRASS IN AN ALL-GRASS SYSTEM FOR PRIME LAMB PRODUCTION
- 1 January 1985
- journal article
- Published by New Zealand Grassland Association in Proceedings of the New Zealand Grassland Association
Abstract
On light soil in Canterbury, a Nui ryegrass/Matua prairie grass (area proportion 7030) irrigated farmlet stocked with 20 Coopworth ewes plus 5 ewe hoggetslha grew 15.0 t DMlha. From 190% survival-to-sale of lambs, mean lamb live-weight was 30.6 kg to give a calculated meat yield of 550 kg/ha. Ewe replacments grew to 59 kg in their second summer. On the same site in a later year and comparing NuilMatua (area proportion 50:50) with Nui only farmlets at stocking rates of 13 and 16 Coopworth ewes/ha, the pastures grew 11.2, 11.2, 10.2 and 9.9 t DMlha respectively. The highest yielding system was NuilMatua - 16 ewes/ha, where from 181% survival-to-sale of lambs, mean liveweight was 26.8 kg to give a calculated meat yield of 375 kg/ha. Nui alone - 16 ewes/ha provided for a calcu!a!ed meat yie!d of 326 kn,yfh,,r,-, with ewes in that system being 3.8 kg lighter than at their mating time. The features of Matua were its superior cool-season growth and, under dryland condition, its superior feeding quality in summer. Management was rotational grazing in a ten paddock system with short duration of grazing (about 4 days) for Matua pasture. Keywords: grazing system, lamb meat production, Lo/&m perenne, Bromus willdenowiiKeywords
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