FARMERS WARNED

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31660, 22 April 1968, Page 1

FARMERS WARNED

Sickness Of Cows After the death of a cow and the sickness of three others from eating ngaio leaves, Banks Peninsula farmers have been advised to make sure no branches of the tree are lying in their paddocks after storms. Mr A. C. Howse, the Department of Agriculture’s veterinarian in Christchurch, said yesterday that the sick animals had been found on two farms. Ngaio leaves were poisonous to stock. Mr Howse said that one cow had become sick through eating the leaves at one farm. It was recovering. On another farm three cows had become sick and one had died. The others were recovering. “Normally, the leaves of the ngaio tree are out of reach of the cattle. It is only in storms that branches get blown down and it seems that when they wilt the leaves become palatable to the animals,” said Mr Howse. Farmers with ngaio trees should watch for branches on the ground and gather them or keep cattle in other paddocks. He said that in the late 1940 s in the wake of storms more than 70 cattle died from eating the leaves. |