Stock Losses Difficult To Estimate

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31151, 30 August 1966, Page 1

Stock Losses Difficult To Estimate

Officers of the Department of Agriculture and veterinarians in Mid-Canterbury and North Canterbury were unable yesterday to make precise estimates of lamb and ewe losses in last week’s storm.

Losses have varied from property to property depending on whether lambing had just started, was in full swing or had finished. In some areas losses are believed to be severe but in others the indications now are that stock losses may not be as serious as at first thought Mr C. P. Whatman, senior farm advisory officer of the

Department of Agriculture at Ashburton, said yesterday that the tendency was to overestimate losses. Mr Whatman said that the storm might have caused a 1 per cent reduction in the lambing percentage in the district.

Although snow had fallen in the district as far towards the coast as Ashburton, the main snowfall had extended about eight miles from the hills. For the young lambs the bitterly cold rain experienced further from the hills had been just as bad. HIGH LOSS

An Ashburton veterinarian said many lambs had been ost during the storm. He estimated that 75 per cent of 'ambs born in this period died and that there were losses of

30, 40 and 50 lambs on some properties. After returning yesterday from a visit to the Methven district, where 3in of snow was still lying near the hills, he said fanners had told him that losses of ewes and hoggets had been remarkably low The biggest loss of shorn ewes so far known of by the club was one of about 100. In some areas where farmers had not yet begun lambing sleepy sickness was becoming a problem, the veterinarian said. Because the snow had covered feed the balance was against some of the aged ewes.

Mr R. A. Milne, officer in charge of the Department of Agriculture at Rangiora, described the impact of the storm there as very severe.

In the Motunau-Scargill area, where there had been 4in of rain, one farmer had estimated his lamb loss about 200, Mr Milne said. Four hundred lambs had been lost on another property and 100 lambs and 80 shorn ewes on a third. Most people who were lambing had suffered losses. Lambs which were 24 hours old were also lost in some cases. UP TO 300

Up to 300 lambs have been lost on properties in the Oxford district, according to the Malvern Fanners’ Veterinary Club. In the> Darfield district there had also been losses of 40, 50, 60 or 70 on farms and some farmers were not counting their losses, said a veterinarian.

Towards the foothills a number of ewes were getting sleepy sickness, he said. A 50 to 70 per cent recovery could be achieved if affected sheep could be detected early enough and transferred to good feed. In some areas the feed had been covered by snow. In the Rakaia gorge area there was still 9in of snow lying yesterday morning and it was still snowing. VARIED LOSSES

A veterinarian said that losses had varied in the Waikari district but there hag not been many large losses. Where ewe flocks had been shorn recently losses had been about 20 or 30 ewes out of 1000.

In some cases lambing had only finished at the beginning of last week, a few days before the storm. Some farmers

who hag finished lambing had suffered no losses at all, he said.

One or two very conscientious farmers who had got all their stock into shelter during the storm had been able to keep their losses negligible. A Rangiora veterinarian said that losses in his area had not been serious as lambing in many cases did not start till next month.

The storm has had one beneficial effect. The accompanying rain has put an end to fears that the province was again on the threshold of drought after more than 18 months of well-spread rainfall and abundant growth. For some time there is not likely to be any shortage of soil moisture and once the weather warms good spring growth is expected.