The Effect of Manuring, Grazing and Cutting on the Yield, Botanical and Chemical Composition of Natural Hill Pastures: I. Yield and Botanical Section

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Abstract
The effect of artificial manures and lime on 2 natural hill fescue-Agrostis swards and a Molinia sward was investigated over a 10-yr. period under controlled and free-grazing conditions and also cutting for hay and aftermath. Yields were taken on the fenced controlled plots during the first 4 yrs. of the trial by sampling prior to grazing and also at the 10th year (1939) when sheep were excluded and each plot cut and weighed 4 times during the season. At this date the order of increasing yield over unmanured was the same at the 3 centers, namely, P, Ca, PKN and CaPKN (P as superphosphate, K as kainit or potash salts, and N as (NH4)2SO4). The completely manured pasture plots (CaPKN) greatly exceeded in yield the similarly manured hay plots. Botanical changes among the native spp. occurred on all plots irrespective of the type of grazing or whether cut for hay and aftermath. In addition, volunteer grasses and wild white clover (Trifolium repens) gradually gained an entry into certain plots and spread rapidly. Under controlled grazing conditions these spp. had almost replaced the native flora on the CaPKN and Ca plots by the 10th yr. In this respect the manures and the lime had a greater effect on the Molinia soil than on the fescue-Agrostis soils, and this also applied to yield. Lime caused a greater seasonal spread-over of yield than the other treatments, and also the greatest miscellaneous flora both native and volunteer. The unmanured pasture herbage at each center benefited from the periodical close grazing, while the unmanured hay plots were the poorest in yield and composition owing to the absence of the grazing animal. The freely grazed plots differed from the controlled grazed not only in respect to having much smaller amts. of volunteer spp. but among the proportions of native spp. The manures and lime had a direct effect upon palatability by the increased nutritive properties of the herbage as measured on the freely grazed plots. Where the combined effect of manuring and close grazing with sheep and cattle had greatly increased the wild white clover, the influence on palatability of these hill pastures could be measured by the proportion of white clover in the herbage. The striking effects on yield and botanical composition brought about by the concentrated grazing, manuring and liming without recourse to cultivation and seed sowing have been demonstrated throughout the trial.

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