STOCK HEALTH

Press, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22240, 3 November 1937, Page 17

STOCK HEALTH

VALUE OF LIME

An argument used with perfect confidence 15 or 20 years ago was that North Canterbury did not need applications of lime, because "it was limestone country." That belief still persists in some quarters, The full time operations of the various lime kilns that have been started within the last few years in North Canterbury are making many holes in the old-fashioned theory. As a matter of fact it has been demonstrated that lime is just as essential in these limestone belts as elsewhere. . ~ , . , Apart altogether from the exploded theory that because lime has been there—before it was leached out of the top soil—there are other reasons which emphasise the need of lime. The writer remembers talking a good few years ago to an old Highlander who bad just returned from a trip to his native glen after more than a 50 years' absence. Where stock fattened was at the time of his visit a run for deer. The cause he ascribed to the cattle being walked off in a store condition to bo fattened in the Lowlands. The glens did not even have the benefit of their bones. The result was that tons of lime had been removed for generations from the soil, which became practically derelict. The tide of emigration had something to do with the change, he admitted, but deterioration was well on its way before emigration reached its peak. The opinion is recalled by an article in a recent issue of a Home stock paper. It states that grazing results m a heavy drain on the lime supply. Cattle remove from 161b to 211b lime per 10001b live-weight gain. For sheep the loss is 11 to 131b. Expressed in more practical terms, grazing at the rate of one beast an acre means a loss 'of 211b lime. With sheep at three an I acre, the loss is little less. The article proceeds to state that the full effect of lime shortage in animal rearing, health, growth, and fertility is only now being explored. In this connexion, it is worth noting that practically the whole of the central plain of Ireland—a source of many lof tho store cattle of England—is I carboniferous limestone. It contains 93 to 97 per cent, carbonate of lime. Hence the reputation for bone of Irish cattle I and the famous "timber" of that country's horses. In many English pastures, even those on some of the best marls, the lime I carbonate content is only about 7 per cent.