ANIMAL DISEASES

Evening Post, Volume CXXVI, Issue 7, 8 July 1938, Page 11

ANIMAL DISEASES

FIGHTING THE PROBLEM

GOVERNMENT'S ACTION

STOCK IMPROVEMENT

The Government's appreciation of the problems facing farmers through animal diseases was stressed by the Minister of Agriculture (the Hon. W. L. Martin), when opening the coriference of the Royal Agricultural Society today. The Minister emphasised the beneficial influence the Royal Show exercised on the standard of farm stock, particularly at'a time when greater attention than ever was being paid to the breeding and feeding of flocks and herds.

The facial eczema investigation would be the biggest single investigation ever carried out in. New Zealand, he said, but the money would be well spent. Cabinet had .made £10,000 available for the investigation, and a staff of experts was working on the problem.

The object of all animal work should be prevention rather than cure, said j the Minister, and with the proposed increases in veterinary research and instructional services many of the troubles at present causing stock losses should be eliminated. Such losses were important factors in the raising) of farm costs. The facilities at thei Wallaceville Veterinary Laboratory | had been improved, and £20,000 had: been set aside for buildings and equipment The 'only obstacle in the way of a more rapid increase in the Government's livestock services was the difficulty of procuring the men capable of carrying out the work. The Direc-tor-General of Agriculture (Mr. A. H. Cockayne) was at present in London, and he would investigate the problem of securing men. It had been extreme-! ly difficult, owing to the British Gov-j ernment's campaign against animal'..dis-J ease, to secure workers. j BREEDING STOCK. Ah important factor in the qualityl and quantity :of production was that of inferior breeding stock. The stand-] ard of stock might be raised by regu- j latory action or.by the importation of fresh blood from overseas, but more important still was a proper genetical study of the various breeding strains in thu country, and from it the standardisation of type leading towards the elimination -of inferiority and the development of superiority. If they were to have healthy livestock the breeder had to turn more and more to the scientifically-trained man. It was to that study of scientific breeding that he asked the stud-stock breeders to pay full attention. ; When the most suitable types of animals had been bred they should be managed under the best principles of animal husbandry. "In the work of improving our stock and thus. eliminating • waste, I know the Royal Agricultural Society will, in keeping with its ideals and the ideals of the older Royal Societies in Great Britain, co-operate enthusiastically," he said. ( "I can assure you that the Department of Agriculture will also play its part. Let us work together towards a common objective."