Veterinarians’ Part In Increasing Production

Press, Volume CIV, Issue 30676, 16 February 1965, Page 13

Veterinarians’ Part In Increasing Production

Farming techniques would have to be modernised. The tapping of New Zealand’s latent pastoral resources would not be achieved by the haphazard agricultural methods which had brought the country to its present comfortable affluence, said the president of the New Zealand Veterinary Association (Mr G. F. Sommerville) yesterday.

Mr Sommerville was giving his presidential address to the opening session of the association’s conference, which was opened at Lincoln College by the chairman of the New Zealand Wool Board (Mr J. Acland). In New Zealand farming, the wide gap between science and practice, and between progress and complacency would have to be reduced, Mr Sommerville said. New concepts of farming were needed, beginning essentially with the necessity for a break-through of the mental barrier that lay between so many fanners and the possibility of higher production.

The attainment of high agricultural output could be reached by the farmer only with the encouragement, assistance and direction of science. Veterinary science, in research, teaching, ad-

ministration and practice had a leading role to play in the drive for higher animal production. Chief Exports New Zealand's overseas income was its wealth, and almost all of this was derived from exports, 93 per cent of which were produced by the animals grazing on the country’s pastures. “The stark fact is impressed upon us that our continuing prosperity is vitally dependent upon an everincreasing volume of exportable animal produce. Simply, our material well-being is measured in terms of the value of our exports, and our chief exports now and in the forseeable future are of animal origin. “In a world hungry for protein, New Zealand has the opportunity to discharge a moral obligation to help alleviate this hunger and at the same time to lay a firmer foundation for her own successful future.” Raising Production

Mr Sommerville said the persistent concept that restricted the veterinary surgeon’s calling to midwifery and the treatment of injuries and ailments of individual animals was one that needed amendment.

Of increasingly greater importance was veterinary service directed to the raising of flock and herd production. Advice that could raise the thrift of a flock, strategic immunisation of a herd that could maintain its health, or the adoption of improved management techniques that would raise the fertility of breeding stock could have extensive and far reaching benefits to the nation. Veterinary science was the study of the animal in health and disease, and there was no part of animal production where it could not make significant contributions.

It was not without design that the first New Zealand faculty of veterinary science had been established in a university with strong agricultural connexions. It would have been a retrograde step to align veterinary teaching with a medical school, with its strong case for the traditional approach. The agricultural and veterinary sciences must combine to make the best use of advances in the knowledge of the production and utilisation of pastures. Veterinary science together with agriculture could lay the basis for the development of an efficient animal industry,, but the ascent to higher levels of animal production was hindered by disease, and inefficiencies of breeding, rearing and feed conversion. These were veterinary problems, and their mastery was initially the work of the research scientist The veterinary scientist was needed now as never before, and with the present apparently insatiable demand for practitioners it could be wondered if the low ratio of veterinarians in research to those in practice would ever be corrected. Advisory Service “Almost all the work of'the veterinary surgeon in agricultural practice is in the cause of animal production whether it be attention to the individual animal or to flocks and herds. The operating of a service which attends to specific problems on request is very simple. To operate a service which is also advisory on animal health and production has its difficulties. “First there is the reluctance of the farmer to recognise advisory services as coming within the scope of veterinary science, and sec-

ond, the farmer’s inability to appreciate the complexity of his day-to-day problems. This natural tendency to oversimplification has attracted the inquiring farmer to accept plausible and superficial advice from lay and quasiscientific advisers.

“Failure to appreciate the importance and function of veterinary science in guiding farmers through the modern maze of sometimes conflicting opinions on animal management and disease control, is costly and wasteful to the industry. “The veterinary profession has the unique advantage of having an objective view of the whole of the livestock industry. The presence of deficiencies and problems in this great industry and the possible ways of correcting them are more apparent to the veterinarian than anyone., This detached but intimate' surveillance over an industry which has been enjoined to expand vastly its output should be recognised and put to effective use.

“We may recoil from the thought of aiding the advance of bureaucracy by the suggestion of yet another division of central control, but the urgency and importance of increasing our animal production would suggest to me that its special problems should be dealt with by a body created for that purpose. “The function of such an organisation would be to have under continuous critical examination all processes of the animal industry, to ensure that it is sufficiently efficient and diversified to make the best use of our animals in meeting the quantity and quality requirements of the market. “The development of the animal industry requires that full use be made of the veterinary profession. Non-reeog-niition of the importance of the veterinary approach to animal production will seriously delay the achievement of production targets. “When planning for the future we must be aware of the functional significance of veterinary science in a changing world, and be prepared to adapt our thinking towards a more effective employment of veterinary man-power in the advancement of animal production,” said Mr Sommerville.