LAND, STOCK & CROPS

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 17, 31 October 1929, Page 7

LAND, STOCK & CROPS

NOTES AND COMMENTS.

(By “The Tramp.”) The present, says the “New Zealand Journal of Agriculture,” is usually a somewhat critical 2>eriod in the management of pastures. To get the best returns from pastures and from fertilisers which have been applied to them it is essential that the pastures he kept young —that is,. characterised by vigourous leafy growth. Such leafy growth is desirable because the nutriment is in a very digestible form and occurs with the proportions of important ingredients well balanced to meet the Requirements of milk-production of the cow and of the ewe. The length of the period of leatygrowth production is reduced if pastures are allowed to become rank and to run to the development of flower-ing-stalks. In October in a normally favourable season there is a tendency for the pasture to develop too much growth unless this is properly guarded against. Last season this tendency was most marked on farms where topdressing had been done for the first time or wliebe the ai'ea top-dressed had been extended. On these farms the increased carrying-capacity resulting from the new or the additional toildressing had been underestimated more often than overestimated, with the consequence that the extra growth could not, during early summer, he satisfactorily utilised by the stock carried, and there was a call for the adoption of practices specially to keep the pasture m check. Fortunately the practices required for this purpose are definitely known and are in wide use in certain districts. The most important of these is/ proper handling of the grazing. Instead of allowing the stock to browse over the whole farm they should he concentrated into one paddock for a period sufficiently long to have the growth reduced to sueli an extent that to keep the stock in that paddock longer would mean that they would suffer. When this stage lias been reached the stock should he transferred to another paddock which calls for similar treatment, and then in due course, in a similar way, to other paddocks until all available paddocks have been grazed over or until the growth in the paddock first grazed under this system has reached the stage when it can be most advantageously grazed. At tins stage another cycle of grazing over the paddocks in turn is commenced. If tlie rate of growth becomes so great that to graze all the 2>addocks would mean that some of them would become too rank for most adWmtageous grazing, then a naddock or paddocks providing growth in excess of the grazing requirements should be dropped from the series of paddocks on which the rotational grazing is being practised. The paddocks so dropped from the rotational grazing series should, be shut un for hay or ensilage production.

Every spring a goed many losses! occur among lambs, and these to a considerable extent can be avoided by the exercise of the best care and management. First of all there is the trouble commonly known as “pulpy kidney,” the victims of which are nearly always the best and fattest of the lambs, which die suddenly at from two to four weeks of age—most often between three and four weeks. At this age the lamb’s supply of milk is being augmented by young grass with a high food value. As a consequence tlie lamb is actually receiving more food at this age than its internal organs can effectively deal with. The lambs die very suddenly, as a rule, without showing any previous symptoms. Therefore, such preventive measures as are practicable require to be adopted if losses are to he reduced as far as possible. The exercise involved in yarding up the lambs and the loss of blood from marking are as a rule measures which largely prevent this trouble. As the critical period depends on the age of the lamb, and this period is at the age of two to four weeks, exercise daily on a bare paddock is recommended during this period. It is often sufficient in small flocks to move the sheep from one end of the paddock to the other two or three times daily; but, however it is done, plenty of exercise is a most valuable precautionary measure. A few lambs are lost' annually from haemorrhage, and from infection of the wounds at time of docking and marking. To prevent this any lamb found bleeding excessively after the operation should he again caught and the bleeding stump cauterised, but this should only he done when the bleeding is noticed to he excessive and prolonged. The losses from infection of the wounds caused by the operations can largely lie prevented by using only a knife which has been sterilised by boiling water, and swabbing the wounds afterwards with a solution of some reliable antiseptic. A quantity -of this should he within easy reach while the docking operations are being carried out. Another cause of loss among lambs, the direct importance of which is apt to be overlooked or underestimated,. is the mis-mothering of lambs at docking time. Among small flocks this . may not amount to much, hut on bigger properties it must cause a considerable loss in the aggregate. To prevent this, or to reduce it to a minimum, is a matter involving principally method and management in handling the ewes and lambs at the time of the operation, hut every sheep-farmer should beai’ this point in mind.—Live Stock Division in tlie “New Zealand Journal of Agriculture.”