‘Staggering’ stock losses anger Cheviot farmers

Press, 5 March 1982, Page 19

‘Staggering’ stock losses anger Cheviot farmers

Ryegrass staggers is causing considerable stock deaths in the Cheviot region of North Canterbury and is expected to depress lambing percentages later this year on almost all sheep properties in that area.

Deaths by misadventure following severe attacks of staggers are common on many sheep properties and reductions in ewe weights, particularly among twotooths. approaching flushing and tupping will result in lower lambing percentages.. Mr Norman Hewett, of Cheviot, said he had lost about. 40 sheep, mostly lambs. They -had gone down in waterholes, been strangled in fences or had their eyes pecked out by seagulls when cast.

In his mobs affected by staggers he had problems moving them off the toxic pasture and had started feeding barley to bring about an improvement. Mr Hewett said that the 40 sheep lost -would be worth around $lOOO and the loss of weight in his wethers and the supplementary feeding costs meant that ryegrass staggers

had cost him at least $3OOO already. “Ryegrass staggers is an equivalent problem in this area to faciai exzema in the North Island. Every sheep in my property is affected to some extent." he said. Mr Hewett and other members of the Cheviot Farm Improvement Club have resolved to write to the Minister of Agriculture (Mr Maclntyre) stressing the seriousness of the problem this year and pressing tor more research. Mr Philip Everest, advisory officer with the Ministry of Agriculture and Fisheries, Rangiora, confirmed that all sheep farms north of the Hurunui to the Conway and east of the Lowry Peaks range to the coast had some incidence of staggers. He said • he had helped weigh two-tooths on the farm in the affected area and weight losses of up to 4kg hao been found.

"As we approach flushing and tupping.’ he said, "every kilogram of lost body weight means 2.5: to 3 per cent lambing drop." He said he was advising

farmers to reduce stock pressure on pasture which produced staggers so as to stop stock eating down to the ground. He was also encouraging farmers to think about a late summer forage crop for the future. He said the problem was worse on the flat because most of the hill country in the area was not 100 per cent introduced ryegrass. Mr Everest said that the incidence of staggers has shown the wide variation in its effects on progeny ol different sires. On one property where the progeny of three stud rams had all been run on fungusinfected pasture, some 40 lambs had become paralytic" with staggers. Upon checking tags and records it. was found that 39 of these were from one ram, one by another' and none from the third. Reports such as this from field observations are still being sought and studied by the researchers.

Clearly there are many ways of looking at. the problem and many possible <1

remedies to be tried and applied.

Another farmer in the region. Mr Rod McKenzie, of Greta Valley, has observed apparent reduction by nearly one half in the incidence and severity of staggers attacks on young cattle when they are given a liquid seaweed mixture, called Nutrimol. Mr McKenzie's trials have been to assess the affect of dosages of Nutrimol on liveweight gains but in conjunction with the M.A.F. Rangiora officers he has also made a study of the incidence of staggers in treated calves compared with a control group. Dosages of 40ml of Nutrimol every 28 days for 112 days have apparently cut the incidence of "considerable staggers" from 21 out of 52 in the control, or undosed group, to only 4 out of 23 in the dosed group. The percentages of all incidence of staggers, slight or considerable, were 36 per cent in the control group. 26 per cent in a group which received 20ml of Nutrimol every 28 days and 17 per cent in the full dose group.