CHECK ON HEADS EATEN BY SHEEP

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30128, 11 May 1963, Page 6

CHECK ON HEADS EATEN BY SHEEP

IVHAT happens to nodding ’’ thistle seed heads eaten by sheep? This is at present being studied by the Department of Agriculture in Ashburton.

Mr E. Delahunty, a farm advisory officer of the Department of Agriculture in Ashburton who has been engaged on investigations into thistle control, said last week that there was no doubt that sheep ate nodding thistle seed heads, but nori ne seemed to know exactly at what stage they did. though it was thought that it probably was when they were fairly well advanced but not yet mature and at the shedding stage. In an attempt to discover just what happens to seed heads that are eaten. Mr Delahunty recently collected half a sugar bag full of nodding thistle heads when they were about the trumpet stage and might be eaten. These seed heads were offered to three wethers held indoors at the Winchmore irrigation research station To accustom them to their surroundings they were held inside for a week before the feeding of thistles began and were fitted with harness to catch the dung. They were fed twice a day. but the evening before the thistle administration began the normal feeding was omitted to stimulate their appetite Initially 14 heads were offered to each wether. Mr Delahunty recalls that two of the wether* spumed the heads, which had been

trimmed of thear prickles by a member of the station staff, but the third member of the group with a thoughtful look on bis face munched away quite unconcernedly, cleaning up 28 thistle heads in two meals—23 in the first and five at a second feeding. The dung was collected for six days after the feeding and it was subsequently placed in hot water and washed through an 80-mesh sieve, and this material was put in a glasshouse at Winchmore to see if the seeds io it could be germinated. As a check on the number of seeds that the wether probably ate, 25 seeds heads were counted for seed. It was found that they contained 4294 apparently viable seeds and 878 dead seeds, or about 200 seeds to the head. On this basis it was calculated that the wether consumed about 5500 seeds.

Over a period of about two weeks no seeds germinated in the material in the glasshouse ao the samples were examined by hand when only 18 recognisable seeds were found. As the sheep had probably eaten 5500 seeds the 18 that survived unharmed representated a negligible quantity, said Mr Delahunty To eheck on the validity of this experiment it is intended to collect more dung from oaddocks where sheep have been grazing reed heads and search the dung for seeds. On the basis of the work so far done Mr Delahunty said it seemed that moat seed eaten by sheep was destroyed.