"That irked me. It also irked me that the way he couched it in is column appeared like it was a god-given truth - well, it's not. Calcium certainly has its uses when growing clover, but to say it is the best and the only way to do it is simply untrue."
With that off his chest Mr Casey moved on to another perhaps less irksome discovery - the new Sward Stick produced by Beef + Lamb NZ to measure grass cover.
For more than two decades Mr Casey has used cages in up to 70 or 80 different sites throughout the region top measure grass growth. He takes cuttings, dries it out and then weighs it to give average dry matter content available per hectare. The tried and true plate meter has done a similar job for decades.
"However, the other day I did a wee trial in a paddock using all three methods. My cage method told me there was roughly 2745kg of dry matter per hectare available and the plate meter gave me a similar reading of 2754kg/DM/ha. The Sward Stick using the summer reading gave me a figure of 3555kg/DM/ha.
"Funny enough both the cage and plate meter methods came up with the same figures, while the Sward Stick was way different. The trial was done in the first week of December which is officially summer, but we all know spring wasn't that flash this season and has delayed summer in real terms, so perhaps I should have used that reading on the Sward Stick instead.
"Probably only a minor thing in the bigger picture I know, but it's worth noting that the stick system may not be as accurate as you may think. It's all probably redundant anyway because most farmers I know use their eye to assess grass cover - anyway have a great Christmas," he said.
