LAND, STOCK, & CROPS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume XLVI, Issue 10474, 13 August 1925, Page 2

LAND, STOCK, & CROPS

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

(By "The Tramp.")

The changeable and stormy weather of the last fortnight is causing mortality among early- lambs, many of which have made their appearance in districts towards the sea. Those which have survived the cold have suffered a set-back, and a good spell of fine warm weather is needed. The main lambing will be in full swing next month.

The British Ministry of Agriculture has now under consideration the drafting of a Bill to make compulsory the provision of weighing machines in live stock markets, as recommended by the Linlithgow Committee. ,

Hares are becoming numerous m the Maheno district, and are causing considerable loss among the root and green crops (says the " Oamaru Mail")- One farmer reports that in a paddock of seven acres of swedes an area of an acre had been attacked, and gave the appearance as if some sheep had been fed upon them. Many farmers in the locality would welcome an organised hare drive as a means of reducing the trouble.

Speaking the other day regarding the cost of eradicating blackberry, Mr E. F.' Northcroft, officer in charge of the blackberry investigation for the Agricultural Department, stated that one or two cases had come under his notice where farmers in the Wairoa district had to pay as high as £4 10s per acre to have the weed cut. That, of course, did not mean that the black, berry was killed, for it grew again from the roots next year.

The spell of wet leather which has prevailed lately in Poverty Bay has had a serious effect upon the hogget flocks in the district, for in addition to trouble with lungworm, farmers are finding that the hoggets are becoming very dirty, necessitating repeated As foot-rot is also bad in parts of the district, it cannot be said that the farmers are free from trouble this winter. The losses through lungworm have been very high on some stations; and even repeated drenching has not cured the trouble.

An innovation is to be introduced next season by the New Zealand Cooperative Herd-testing Association in the form of a calf-marking system whereby heifer calves of cows that had given over 3001 b of fat would be ear-marked. As an illustration of the loss the country had suffered through the lack of such a system, Mr C. M. Hume, the general manager, quoted at Hamilton this week, a herd of 45 cows which had averaged 3201 b of fat. Of the heifer calves born, only five were kept, the reason being that the price the owner would have obtained had he reared the calves would have been less than the cost involved. With the calves marked and the records of their dams available, a demand for such calves would be created, with the' result that better prices would prevail.

With piglings of six to eight weeks old it is pretty much a case of judging from appearances as to the exact age. An expert, however, will not be easily deceived. If a pig is 10 weeks old he will not accept it as being only six or seven weeks. With older store pigs the age can be more or less accurately learned from the condition of the pig's teeth.

When a pig is six months old the corner permanent incisors are cut. When those pointed teeth, or tusks, on each side of the jaw are fully more than half-way up, the pig may clearly be set down as nine months old. When a pig is 12 months old the central incisors, or fore teeth, will have replaced tfie milk teeth, while one or more of the grinders, or molars, will have made their appearance. At 15 months old the permanent incisors on each side make their appearance; and when these are fully up the pig will be about 18 months old.

Professor Gaiger, of the Animal Diseases Research Association, Glasgow, in giving publicity to some notes upon lamb dysentery, or lamb disease, says I that lamb dysentery is now thoroughly ' understood. The day is past when farmers need refer to it as "the mysterious lamb disease." What is urgently needed is the better education of the fanner concerning the facts of the di- ] sease which years of research have brought to light. Dysentery is as rife among lambs as ever it was, and on many farms the losses have been serious, about one-third of the lamb crop having been lost. The problem seems to' be one of farm sanitation, and not until farmers appreciate this more fully will the disease be got under control.

In the booklet issued by the Animal Research Association, the nature of the trouble is fully brought to light. It was, says Professor Gaiger, in the research laboratory of this Association that the easfual organism was discovered, and the disease shown to be due to soil bacteria. The primal causal germ is a virulent strain of the bacillus coli, which sets up a catarrhal condition of the young lamb's bowel end allows other common soil bactewa to penetrate the delicate intestinal wall and cause ulceration. The whole system of the lamb becomes invaded by these bacteria, and death quickly ensues. It has been, conclusively proved that lambs born on infected farms are born free of the disease, but pick it up immediately after birth, either from direct contact with the infected pasture or from the soil-contaminated udder of the ewe. Disease, so contracted may prove fatal in 12 hours.

For those who are already deeply involved with the disease, research workers are enreavouring to do something to minimise the great loss of lambs. Flockmasters cannot do better than put into force the strict sanitation measures recommended in the pamphlet. Experiments a,re being continued at artificial immunisation by means of serums and vaccines.

Inrioeulation of new-born lambs _ with serum is lieing pursued as a more hopeful line of investigation. An anti-serum has been prepared against the three principal bacteria which kills the lamb —namely, the bacillus '.oh, the yibr'on septique, and the'bacillus welchii. This triple serum is more likely than : nythin'g else which has previously been used" to save the lives of a proportion of the lambs. No .serum, or, indeed, any laboratory product, need ever be expected to act miraculously and save

them all. If these experiments would show that a proportion of lives can be saved by a laboratory product, »it dees not justify the farmer in neglecting to do any part of the recommended sanitary measures. No lambs, says Professor Gaiger, need ever be etxpected to live on farms which have infection thrust upon them in the way one sees this done. Several flockmasters whose farms were badly infected adopted the sanitary measures which have been recommended, and have now reported that they no longer have any dread of the disease, since the number of cases has been reduced to a negligible quantity.