SOME PASTURE PROBLEMS

Press, Volume LXXII, Issue 21813, 19 June 1936, Page 16

SOME PASTURE PROBLEMS

RESEARCH WORK IN HAND PROGRESS REVIEWED [THE PKEBB Special Service.] WELLINGTON, June 18. Discussing pasture problems in his address to the National Dairy Association Conference to-day, Dr. E. Marsden, of the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research, said that, while he had nothing spectacular to report, he thought they were beginning to go forward a little in the direction of seeing the problem as a whole.

To-day it was, he said, less a matter of what species of grass to use than of what particular variety or strain of the comparatively few really suitable species to select. Persistency, durability, and an ability to withstand relatively advei'se conditions constituted the first necessity. The second was sustained productivity. High nutritive value was of little account without durability and productivity. The informed land improver now employed those leafy, persistent strains and sowed a simple mixture. Usefulness of Certain Weeds

There was, continued Dr. Marsden, an increased conception of the usefulness of certain types of weeds in the nutritional balance under certain circumstances. • The whole question of the nutrition qualities of various grasses at various times of the year was one which needed a little more working out. It was not only a question of quantity but of quality. In illustration of this, he saw some remarkable experiments in Australia. Sheep in cages were fed on a constant diet at a certain energy level. Under these conditions, the growth of wool was absolutely uniform in growth, length, and diameter as measured each fortnight over a long period. When, however, what was called “the protein constituents” of the diet were changed in nature —although the total energy level was kept constant—the wool production increased by 2.6 times and the count changed from 70’s to 56’s. If present-day chemical methods were only refined enough to analyse the nature of the proteins in grasses there would be a great step forward in the economic use of grasses. In the meantime, they could only get general relations and carry out actual feeding trials with pure grasses, i.e'., work along directions similar to those carried out at the Dairy Research Institute on the relations of various pure grasses and clovers to milk production, quality, and taint. Sheep and Cows

It would appear from the experiments referred to, however, that the type of grass suitable for sheep to promote wool growth was not necessarily the same as that suitable for cows, even though the same 1 ngth of grass and the same admixture of clover, etc., were available in both cases. It was also obvious that for dairy farming it was necessary to obtain and classify all knowledge regarding the protein content of New Zealand grasses at various stages both az regards quantity and quality. The whole subject of animal" diseases, in particular mammitis and contagious abortion, was obviously due for some sustained attack. It was estimated that the annual loss from animal diseases in New Zealand was approximately £6,000,000. Even if they cculd only halve that amount it was worth the effort. A few weeks ago the various departments and colleges and other institutions whose work related directly or indirectly to animal diseases came together in Wellington and discussed exhaustively the various problems and arranged for a co-ordin-ated programme of attack on some of them within the resources available. A little more fundamental information was emerging regarding mastitis and contapious abortion, partly from work in New Zealand and Australia and abroad. It was certainly a very baffling problem. Probably the emulsion arose because there were three or four tynes of mastitis, but the most economically important form appeared to be the sub-acute form, because it apparently could go straight through a herd and render quarter after quarter a non-productive organ. The problem called for attack from the bacteriological and veterinary point of view. Problem of Infertility Infertility was an important economical question from the point of view of both the dairy farmer and the sheep farmer. Apparently there were four main aspects:— (a) The genetic factor of inheritance of relative infertility which evidenced itself, apart from pathological or nutritional factors. This had been proved by Kelly in Australia from an analysis of a leading closed stud flock. (b) The infectious or pathological sterility, which one worker explained to the speaker as being more in the nature of venereal disease. (c) There was the possible influence of the prevalent diet in New Zealand, which was apparently very high in certain types of protein compared with other countries. Some very interesting experiments had been carried out on rats by Dr. Hopkirk and Dr. Cunningham which appeared to point in the latter direction, while Mr Webster had done most of the ground work ready for a test of those suggestcins in their relation to sheep. Naturally, these smaller animals were far more easily experimented with than cows, and it was hoped that some general principles would arise which might be readily referred to in dairy herds. (d) The fourth cause of sterility, although not very important in New Zealand’s best farming land, was that due to the low plane of nutrition. PIG INDUSTRY BREEDERS FAVOUR LEVY OF TWOPENCE A HEAD (PBKSS ASSOCIATION TELEGRAM.) PALMERSTON NORTH, June 18. Believing that recording, investigational, and instructional work is vitally necessary for the development of the pig industry, the annual meeting of the New Zealand Pig Breeders’ Association to-day passed a resolution favouring a levy of 2d a pig on all pigs killed to enable this work to be carried out. Mr D. G. Morrison " (North Auckland), Mr R. C. Clark (Auckland), Mr G. S. Ross (Bay of Plenty), Mr J. A. Russell (Palmerston North), and Mr W. L. West (Hawke’s Bay) were reelected to the council. Mr J. A. Russell was re-elected president, and Mr R. C. Clark and Mr F. Ogle (Normanby) were elected vice-presidents. ‘Application of the principle of the 40-hour week has already been, cwried out by the Canterbury GnversUnion, siff’sv: zsr&t j&s in the form of a working week of five days.