LAUSR

ABSTRACT The effects of potassium (K) (0–160 kg/ha/yr) on soil and pasture were measured in five small plot mowing sites on flat and easy slopes in Hawkes Bay hill country from 2004 to 2007. Initial soil QT K levels ranged from 1.6 to 3.8 at each site and increased to a range of 3.5–11.3 at the highest rate of K in the third year. At most sites, clover cover on some occasions increased up to the highest rate of K. Despite this increase, there was only one significant response in pasture production to K at one site in the third year. Possible reasons for the lack of a total DM production response to K application were more grass growth compensating for less clover growth at the nil and lower rates of K or insufficient transfer of nitrogen from the clover to grasses at higher rates of K.