Care In Starting On Grain Needed

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 31984, 10 May 1969, Page 8

Care In Starting On Grain Needed

) A warning against f feeding too much grain ■ ■ to sheep in the early ' t stages was made at a t field day near Fairlie • this week by Mr E. C. f i Orr, a livestock in- . t structor in the district, i r 1 > Mr Orr was speaking with : t knowledge of 500 to 600 sheep > that died in the Mackenzie , . last year from the effects of i I cereal feeding. > If feeding was started at a 1 > level of a lib a day he sug- i ■ gested that even this could be i : dangerous, particularly for 1 - hoggets. 1 I Re said it was his feeling ' i that to start off at two ounces ’ I a day was more than enough i r and then to take - at least 14 > days to build Up to the re- < quired ration. He also recom-i i mended care with mobs that < t contained both sheep that i

1 feeding and those that had ' not, and in these cases pro- | posed that the ration should ' be one ounce a. day for a 1 start as the old hands could clean np the whole rataion. • Mr Orr proposed that shy feeders should be taken out , and fed on their own for 14 , days, after which they would , generally become as good J feeders as the rest of the mob. , Mr Orr said that training of i sheep for grain feeding could < start ahead of tupping. In < the case of hoggets be said t that while many farmers had i sought to feed them out of troughs, he preferred the oats being laid out among the hay. However, he said that a trough with a flat bottom would limit their uptake to some extent. For sheep that had “foun-; dered” on grain, he urged early treatment with a drench of two ounces of baking soda in a cup of water, and at the same time he said that the-person treating the sick sheep should not be afraid to massage the rumen. Jt might be necessary to give the drench three times a day.