FOR THE MAN ON THE LAND

Franklin Times, Volume XXV, Issue 57, 20 May 1935, Page 7

FOR THE MAN ON THE LAND

IMPROVING DAIRY PRODUCE. The official statement that the Government, under the Agriculture (Emergency Powers) Act, is to grant loans at 4 per cent for effecting improvements in dairy factories and dairy farms, to bring about improved conditions and thus raise the standard of quality, should be hailed with considerable satisfaction. Great strides have been made in productive efficiency per cow and per acre, but little progress has been made in regard to quality, and the future success of every rural industry of the country absolutely depends on exporting nothing but the highest quality produce and in rigidly maintaining a high quality. Of course providing cheaper money for the farmer to make the necessary improvements will be futile so far as raising the standard of quality is concerned until cream and milk grading is rigidly enforced and the present competition for cream supplies among some dairy companies is ended for all time.

Obtaining money at a reasonable rate of interest wall be a boon to many men, especially for obtaining satisfactory water supplies and for concreting in and around cow-sheds. The matter of water supplies is a most serious problem. In many cases farmers have engaged wellborers to sink wells and after-several attempts these have left the farmer without water but with a debt of from £SO to £IOO, and even more. The employment of a good water diviner would probably have saved much wasted effort and expense. There should be a written agreement as to cost of boring with substantial allowance when the wellborer fails to locate water. The farmer should certainly know where he stands, Though the acting-Minister for Finance has stated that the loans are to be granted only for the purpose of effecting essential improvements to farms, to enable production to be continued, nothing is said as to the cheaper money to be available for the erection of up-to-date pig layouts. This is an absolutely essential improvement, for with proper layouts there is good money in pigs whereas without them It Is doubtful if pigs can be made to pay, that is when profit is calculated on the net return. Many progressive farmers at the present time are anxious to establish pigkeeping on up-to-date methods but are being prevented from doing it by lack of finance. Another matter where finance is required, but which may not come within the provisions of the Act, is that of sheep fencing. Many would keep sheep but for want of the necessary fencing. it would be greatly to the benefit of many dairy farmers if they could cut off half their farms, the poorer portion, and put sheep on this half. By milking fewer and better cows they would probably make as much from dairying as they are doing at the present time, while the returns from the sehep would be an added source of income. Then having a mob of sheep to use when a cow paddock needed cleaning up, rapid grazing with a big mob, not allowing them to remain on for days to overpunish the sward, would be a big advantage, for there is nothing to equal alternate grazing with sheep and cattle to build up high-producing pasture.

While the proposed loans are for the main objective of providing sanitary conditions and an effective water supply the fact should not be overlooked that many who now have good sheds amba proper water supply want money urgently for making their farms more efficient in other ways. Apart from the cost of making proper provision for pigs there are some who want 1o build proper poultry bouses, for with the new knowledge of the great value of curd for cheap egg production they believe they can make even more money from fowls than from pigs, and good poultry houses are just as important as good pig houses. And speaking of farm poultry it would pay handsomely lo send a shilling to the Department of Agriculture for a copy of its Poultry Bulletin and follow this when it comes to erect the poultry house. Tl is very disappointing to see flocks of good poultry housed in the most wretched structures, as one sees so often on farms at the present time. MARROWS AND MAIZE. Quite a number of farmers in the J Bay of' Plenty and South Auckland are | carrying pigs on to bacon weights by means of maize and marrows with half a pound of meat meal a day. One South Auckland man got a yield of seventy bushels of maize from an acre and he feeds the stalks lo his cows. Tie declares that they relish them and it saves him a fortnight’s hay. He also got a good crop of cattle marrows which grew among the maize To make a success of growing maize I for pig feeding it is necessary to have ! an early maturing variety so the maize may mature before the frosts come. The Government intends experimenting lo this end at Ruakura Farm of In- ! struction. Certainly the growing of ! some winter food is necessary if bac- ( oners are to be turned off in the win- j ter months.

PASTURE MANAGEMENT. The most important thing in keeping grass all the time at its best producing stage is management, which is even more important than fertilisation. And probably the most valuable means to this end is the intelligent use of the mower. Not only is good management necessary to keep the grass at its best producing stage but in applying "fertiliser the grass must be brought to the right stage, either by grazing with sheep or the use of the low-set mower, if the fertiliser is to be really effective. In applying fertiliser to long grass much of the fertiliser must be wasted and it certainly cannot be as effective as it should be. The aim, of course, should be to keep the grass in the.leaf stage all the time, and by keen management this can be done. The transformation that, can be effected by the judicious use of the mower is amazing, but this means work. Unfortunately there is the prevailing draw-back that too many men are endeavouring to farm more land than they can properly manage and keeping more stock than they can intelligently control and keep in fit condition. MAMMITIS. The fact is apparently undoubted that mammitis is mainly caused by indigestion, and that the surest means of checking the trouble when it is first noticed is to give the animal a drench. In an English review of the latest results of research it is declared that the best way of getting rid of the trouble from a herd is to segregate or keep apart the susceptible animals. The milk of all suspected cows should be tested, a microscopic count be made and the cows found to be carrying the germ in their milk be milked last. Separation at pasture is not necessary, but in the milking shed the affected cows should be milked last. It is noted that first-calving heifers (especially those that have not had constipating food prior to calving are almost invariably healthy and that' infected cows are usually the older animals. The altter should be gradually weeded out of the herd. By adopting the simple method of using the microscopic count to discover the infected cows and milking these last, eliminating them if they do not recover, it is possible to build up a herd from which the bulk of the udder trouble will be eliminated.

SPECIAL VALUE OF PEA MEAL. It is now well established that protein food, the most valuable of all food stuffs, varies greatly in character. Its value is determined by the nature of the amino-acids it contains. Tnere are some 19 or 20 amino-acids. Some of these arc quite indispensible, e.g., lysine, cystine, histidine and trytophane, but the absence or deficiency of the others seems less serious. To be perfect as to protein quality a food must supply from its proteins in the process of digestion all the essential amino acids in suitable amounts. Perhaps the most important amino-acid is lysine. Indeed Cambridge workers have shown that in the absence of this growth cannot take place. Milk is, of course, the ideal way of supplying lysine and the other essential amino-acids, but research workers have shown that blood meal is also very high in lysine. Here it may be mentioned that the blood meal saved in our meat export works is not used for animal food being either used for manure or to be exported for other purposes. The most interesting thing discovered about this most valuable constituent of protein is that peas and beans are comparatively rich in lysine, both British and Russian experiments confirming this.

In work done at the Tannah Dairy Research Institute of Scotland the proteins of linseed, compared with the proteins of beans, were relatively poor in lysine, while those of meat meal were deficient in tryptophane, whilst, on the other hand, the proportions of both these essential amino-acids were relative-high in milk proteins. In a three years’ control test in Norway it was shown that a sow should receive at least Alb. of digestible prolein per day and over double that amount during the suckling stage, but in New Zealand, where separated milk or whey is fed. and a much larger amount of protein is fed. In Germany it has been shown that smaller quantifies of protein resulted in slower growth and a reduction in the proportion of lean to fat in the carcase. This again emphasises the connection he- ! tween our high rate of protein feeding (provided in milk, residues, grass and meat meal), and the high percentage of meat in our experimental pig carcases shipped to Britain.