MASTERTON DAIRY FARM

Dominion, Volume 34, Issue 80, 28 December 1940, Page 14

MASTERTON DAIRY FARM

Latest In Pig Housing

ENSILAGE FOR SHEEP

Situated beside, the Masterton butter factory is a highly improved farm, ot many interests, with some unusual features. Its occupier is Mr, L. T. Daniell. Here is a large dairy herd, mainly serving town supply milk, a stud Romney flock, fattening pigs, and wheat-growing. On the occasion of my visit, ensilagemaking was in full progress, from first cut lucerne. . An idea of the scale of work is gamed from the tonnage made, about ISO tons annually. A huge silo of concrete holds 80 tons’, and 100 goes, into stock. The cut material is loaded on to lorries by a mechanical loader, picking it directly from the swathe. A usual practice here with the first cuts of lucerne is to let the material wilt for two days before taking in. Quantities are estimated 451 b. per cubic foot of ensilage. Consolidation is valued, not so much for making silage, as for farming a tight top crust, to protect the stack. To this purpose boulders are used, being preferred to earth as readier handled. Ensilage as here made is readily eaten by sheep, which Mr. Daniell describes as fastidious feeders. And that opinion is given from 10 years’ experience of the fodder. Trials have shown in practical fashion that ensilage has the same feeding value as swedes. A rule here is to feed hay and silage together, the dung being watched to see how feeds should be proportioned; silage having a loosening tendency and hay the reverse. With sheep feeding this point was stressed: Average five-year ewes have never seen silage, and probably never hay either. They can, however, appreciate hay as a food, by instinct. It has been found that sheep so used to hay will follow up and eat ensilage, and so new sheep are always started on hay at first. The” “Akoura” Romneys are a 12-year established flock, developed on Leedstown and Penrose sires with hill service ever in view for.ram. Mr. Daniell has practical knowledge of what is required from his own farming experience with hard hillcountry, on his station between Alfredton and Bideford. The flock is, of course, absolutely an N.C. one. Attractive Piggery. The latest in pig-houses attracted the eye. Of brick construction, this accommodates 36 baconers in four divisions for nine each. The building in general shape follows the Jensen style—solid brick back and end walls, open front, four pens side by side, separated only by a three-foot brick wall under cover, thus permitting free flow of air along beneath the roof. There is a concrete floor, both in the sleeping area and m the feeding space at the front. Fronts are entirely open. The back wall has well designed, controllable draught boards just below the roof. It is a good, enduring and not expensive design. Then, a crowning feature was the water flowing through the pens at the front. This is drawn from a water race, and flows through all the pens at a depth of about two inches at the front of the pen, easing to half an inch at the edge of the sleeping platform. By simply pulling a plug the whole can be run off and the pens instantly and speedily cleaned. This is the super-clean piggery. All animal droppings are trapped as in a household closet, and milk never spills and lies to smell and attract flies. One feature I felt fear of was the risk of chills, from the concrete sleeping floor, plus dampness of wet bodies. But as .Mr. Daniell explained the water is drawn off at nightfall. Trials have been made with bituminizing the floors. But the pigs rooted this up to make a bedform for themselves. This design of a watered piggery is a new line altogether and one with considerable appeal. Some years ago Mr. Daniell installed a similar feature in his cowyard and milking-shed with highly satisfactory results.