Grass and Grassland - Ian Moore

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is so inextricably interwoven with that of the grasses which grace our fields that the study of grassland is both fascinating and intriguing to all who possess an inquiring mind, be they born and bred in towns or sons of the soil. What is more, the management of the grass sward for farming, sport or pleasure offers a real challenge to skill, in the feeding of plants and the tending of them throughout their life, as well as to one’s understanding of technical developments in the realm of botany, chemistry, engineering and economics.

      Where should we be without grass? Our life is so dependent on this humble, oft-neglected plant that we must appreciate its real significance in the nation’s economy. Without grass our country would lose its scenic beauty, so many sports their colourful background and in scores of ways our lives would be changed. The ordinary grass field one sees every day on any farm, the sports ground with which one is so familiar at school or college or in the wider arena of national games, the small patch of green which graces the front or back of so many English homes, is a complex community of plants each displaying likes and dislikes, and different reactions to varying treatment, yet supplying an essential need whether on the world or simply the individual scale.

      For over thirty years my special interest has been grassland and when I was asked by the Editors of the New Naturalist Series to present the story of grassland for their readers, I accepted with alacrity.

      In writing such a book one must draw from many sources of knowledge and from many writers of the past and I hope I have made due acknowledgements to the many who have contributed to our understanding of grassland. I am deeply indebted to my own colleagues in College for their ready help and guidance and particularly to Mr. K. C. Vear, Professor H. T. Williams and Mr. R.J. Halley. Not being a botanist, I have had much assistance from Mr. Vear, Head of the Biology Department and as I am not an economist, Professor Williams, formerly Head of Agricultural Economics and now of the University of Aberystwyth, has been of material assistance with Chapter 16; Mr. Halley has given me invaluable assistance with the more practical aspects of grassland husbandry, and Mr. R. W. Younger with Chapter 18. To Mr. D. J. Barnard I am very indebted for help with the proofs.

      To the Editors I am grateful for their help in the preliminary stages of writing the book, while to Mr. John Gilmour I am especially indebted for his most valuable criticism and guidance at all stages of preparation. While I hope the book will have a wide appeal generally, I am particularly hopeful that the many schools throughout the country now using a school plot or a school farm or maybe a neighbour’s farm as a living medium for teaching, will find it of value. To the many students now attending the recently instituted day-release classes organised by County Education Authorities in agriculture, to those at Farm Institutes and to all students gaining practical experience prior to College or University courses I hope this book will serve as encouragement to a deeper appreciation of the value of the grass crop and an added incentive to further investigation and wider reading.

      CHAPTER 1 THE ROLE OF GRASS IN NATIONAL LIFE

      The significance of grass in the life of man was recognised in earliest times but the distractions of modern life in great cities and the speed with which man now passes through the countryside have caused him to underestimate its importance.

      Wherever one travels throughout the British Isles grass is to be seen. Our temperate climate and high rainfall, especially in the western areas, favour the growth of grass which in some parts has a growing season of nine months a year, from March to November. Grassland farming, therefore, is our predominant type of farming, and the efficient production and utilisation of grass are obviously of the greatest economic significance to British agriculture. Agriculture is still Britain’s largest single industry and the annual turnover accounts for about 5 per cent of the gross national product thereby exceeding coal (3.2 per cent) and iron and steel (2.8 per cent) which are the next largest industries in gross output. In turn grass, which is our most important crop, makes the greatest single contribution to the farming income. This apart, grass is of prime importance for leisure hours, and our playing fields, which are so much a part of our national life, depend upon grass.

      There is obviously a wide range in the types of grassland found in this country, according to the purpose for which they are used. These include bowling greens and cricket pitches with their velvet, close-knit turf, pastures which fatten cattle or carry large herds of milch cows, and moorland sheep walks. Nor must one forget the importance even of the small garden lawn. This may well be the pride of the owner, who mows it with great care each week-end in the summer months. Each type of turf requires specialised treatment and the potential productivity of the different types of farm grassland—permanent meadows, pastures and cultivable leys as well as the rolling hills and moorland which are classified as rough grazings—varies greatly.

      Grass provides some two-thirds of the total requirements in terms of starch, and even more in terms of protein, of all the cattle, sheep, and horses in the country. This is shown vividly by the following figures for the area under crops and grass in the United Kingdom in 1961.

      TABLE I. AREA UNDER CROPS AND GRASS IN THE UNITED KINGDOM

Total Crops and Grass acres
GRASS 48,820,848
Permanent Grass 12,682,608
Rough Grazings 18,183,421 37,868,130
Rotation Grass 7,002,101
CEREALS 7,554,242
Total Gramineae (Members of the grass family) 45,422,372

      The astonishing fact is revealed that on 4th June, 1961, when these agricultural returns were made, some nine-tenths of our farmland was under grass of one sort or another, i.e. members of the family Gramineae.

      Grass is not, in the great majority of cases, a natural clothing for the earth’s surface, provided by a beneficent nature. It is a community of widely differing species and varieties of plants living together in a constant struggle one with another and overshadowed always by the threat of being overwhelmed by weeds, rushes, bracken, heather, gorse, thorns, alder and other trees until, if man allows this process to go unchecked, scrub or even forest reigns supreme once more. Even the patch of lawn is subjected to the same forces and only by constant attention is a weed-free, close-knit, verdant green turf maintained.

      During the lean times of farming in the 1920’s and 30’s, thousands of acres of farm land reverted to derelict grass and scrub, the farmers being forced to save labour, cut out expensive arable crops, and be satisfied with mere subsistence standards of life, since following the first world war the prices obtained for many farm products were less than the cost of production. Then too, in those days cheap imported cattle cakes and food were readily available, which could serve as a substitute for the grass normally fed to stock, not only during the winter months but even in summer. It was by no means uncommon for dairy herds in industrial areas, such as those in Lancashire and the West Riding of Yorkshire, for instance, to be fed wholly on imported feeding stuffs. In extreme cases the cows probably never left the byre, except perhaps to take exercise in a nearby field during the summer months. Under these conditions the productivity of the grassland was negligible and mineral deficiencies in the soil determined that the land was little more than exercise ground.

      Grass is a crop requiring the same care and attention as wheat, potatoes, or sugar beet. It needs cultivating, fertilising, and utilising to best advantage and when it receives this treatment the returns per acre can be as high as from any other

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