WINTER FEED FOR STOCK

Dominion, Volume 33, Issue 226, 19 June 1940, Page 3

WINTER FEED FOR STOCK

Are Farmers Negligent? QUESTION OF CRUELTY RAISED Complaints about the poor condition of cattle coming into the markets in the Wellington district were referred to yesterday by the inspector for the Wellington Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Mr. R. A. Nicol. “Only too often,” he said, “I have seen cows kept in paddocks almost bare of grass; cows want fairly long glass that they can get their .tongues around. There is, of course, no growth at this time of the year because of the frosts, but that should not worry the farmer who knows his business. He should see to the growing of ample winter feed —turnips, swedes, and mangels—so that during the hard mouths of winter there is ample feed other than pasturage. “In my experience, and I go all over the country, Wellington farmers do not to any extent go in for growing winter feed, with the result that, when the growth in the paddocks ceases, they have little, and in some cases, nothing, for their cattle to feed upon. Is it any wonder then that there is comment on the poor condition of the animals that are being sent in to the market for sale at this time of the year. t “I feel very strongly upon this point, for it amounts to cruelty to keep a cow short of food in the winter time, as I am afraid some farmers do. I am not the only one who has noticed and commented upon the attitude of some of the farmers in this district, who neglect to grow proper supplies for their herds in the right season of the year. I recall one case, only a few miles from Wellington, where I was called in to see a cow with a broken leg; it was being kept in a field that was almost barren of grass, and still was being milked every day. I had to shoot the beast to put. it out of its misery: yet I found tliat the owner was endeavouring to cure its broken leg with a pot of ointment. . “The truth of the matter is that either farmers do not know their business, or that they are too lazy to grow' crops of winter feed to supply the deficiency of nature in the winter time. “Indeed, I am prepared to go further and say that the Government inspectors should see that this sort of thing does not prevail, at any rate to the extent that it does. I don’t think it is so bad either in the Wanganui or the Taranaki districts. At least, I have not noticed it in those districts, but, specially at a time like this, when the Government, is calling upon those on the land to produce more food, there is a duty upon someone to see that dairy-farmers do make provision for proper winter feed for their herds. If that were done there would not be these complaints about cattle arriving at the sale yards in wretchedly poor condition.”