WHAT’S GOING ON IN FARMLAND

Gisborne Herald, Volume LXXVI, Issue 23023, 13 August 1949, Page 8

WHAT’S GOING ON IN FARMLAND

VETERINARIANS AID INCREASED OUTPUT IN THE MEAT AND WOOL INDUSTRIES

GISBORNE EXPERIENCE

The club veterinarian practising in a district where the main form of farming enterprise is the production of meat and wool is comparatively new. Therefore, it mag be of interest to give some of the impressions gained by five years’ practice in such an area.

In this way the senior veterinarian to the Gisborne Veterinary Club. Mr. R. Crawford, introduced a paper observing bow the veterinary profession could help meat production, and presented in a recent address to the Animal Production Society. It is fullv realised that club veterinarians in dairying districts make a real contribution to the production of meat. It would be interesting, said Mr. Crawford. to know if there is yet any significant increase in the number of cast for as? cows, bobby calves and pigs, slaughtered which could be attributed to the establishment of veterinary services. Working with sheep and run cattle, a veterinarian has three lines of approach in helping the producer of meat and wool. These are the treatment of disease, work associated with fertility, and advisory work. The treatment of disease is the type of work which the public generally expect of a veterinary surgeon. In fact, were it not for opportunities offered by the club system, it would be very difficult to build up any volume of work in the categories listed as fertility and advisory work. With the exception of stud sheep, continued Mr. Crawford’s paper, the individual sheep seldom warrants the expense of treatment. At least, that is the opinion held by most farmers. With ewes worth from 30s to £2 and their lambs a similar amount, this idea mav have to be revised. Treatment Available. The main work for the store and fat sheepfarmer is not treatment, however, and will be dealt with under different I headings. Treatments such as the far-1 mer can use himself are dispensed to j members. Examples are injection outfits, disinfectants for shepherds’ hands and antiseptic pessaries for use in ewes assisted at lambing. Of these latter, some breeders report reduced mortality in ewes requiring assistance. Outbreak of disease in a flock is met occasionally and although treatment can be undertaken but seldom, opportunities are presented for getting a really sympathetic audience for sermons on prevention.

this work. The general consensus of graziers’ opinions can be summarised as follows: 1. The lamb drop is more even. If the ewes were coming on heat in good numbers at the start of the mating season, the majority lamb in the first month of lambing. 2. There are fewer dry ewes. A few farmers have volunteered data on this, but they are not over sufficient numbers to be of any moment. As these counts are taken at docking time, it is doubtful if anyone can judge accurately whether a ewe was empty or lost her lamb. 3. There are some who consider their percentages have increased compared with neighbours in the same year. This, of course,' refers to neighbours who did not use examined rams, and whose percentages hitherto had been similar.

In 1948 some 24 rams classified as probable poor breeders were sent to Ruakura Animal Research Station, where Mr J. P. James and his colleagues submitted them to the more critical tests. The following summary gives the results of the 21 rams which could be persuaded to give a semen sample Thirteen were classified as sterile, two as weak, one as moderate, one as poor, one as fairly good and three as sound. It mav be asked how manv sterile rams are missed by the method used and what are the causes of the conditions found. In a country which puts nearly 20.000.000 breeding ewes to the ram each year these are pertinent questions. Similar Proportions. Over the three years, the proportion of rams falling into each classification has been reasonably similar, as follows: Sound. 70 per cent.; temporarily infertile, 20 per cent.; probable poor breeders. 10 per cent. The graziers. themselves refer to them as good rams, doubtfuls and duds. It takes constant emphasis to make them realise that there is little doubt about temporary infertility in the ram. The apparent gaginess in the terminology applied to the duds is necessary as it was forseen that this work would produce a crop of cow-paddock experiments. and that laymen do not readily realise that fertility is a relative rather than an absolute state. In an effort to evaluate the effect this work has had on lambing percentages it was felt that if a sufficiently large group of ewes in one area had had similar lambing figures to the county figures for three years prior to the rams being examined, any change subsequently might reasonably be attributed to the elimination of infer-

The estimated figure for lambs _ in 1948 probably will turn out to be fairly accurate comparing these estimates with previous years. It is apposite to remember that probably there has been a 10 per cent, mortality before the lambs are counted at docking, ana a varying number of ewes have twins. It is possible that one-fifth of the breeding ewes in this type of country do not rear a lamb each year. FIGURES FROM PROPERTIES USING EXAMINED RAMS IN

In run cattle the price factor is different, but it requires long and patient education to get graziers to realise that many beasts previously destroyed or sacrificed as boners can be successfully treated The two diseases to which this mainly refers are actinobacillosis and epithelioma of the eye, more commonly known as woody tongue and cancer eye.

These have formed the bulk of the actual cases treated by Gisborne Club veterinarians, except for work done in pedigree herds. The following table gives an indication of how it grows, but it has been the result of long and careful cultivation:—

It is impossible to give an accurate figure of percentage of cures in all cases of woody tongue treated, added Mr. Crawford. In big holdings the disease is often advanced before it is noticed, and this makes the cure more difficult.

In the last two years there has been a most gratifying tendency for owners to detect the disease early, and this has helped considerably. If an educated guess at percentage of cures can be permitted, then an estimated 85 per cent of cases of woody tongue are cured. It is realised that some get better spontaneously, but not without serious loss of condition.

It is interesting to note that Guilbert et al (1948) claim that eye cancer is a disease of significant economic importance in U.S.A. Also of interest is that the lesion described by these authors has a different predilection site from that seen in Herefords in Gisborne.

Some owners were unable to furnish figures for the earlier years, and for that reason the number of properties from which the figures were computed are given in the next -table. Only those having rams examined are included in the 1947 figures, which accounts for the drop in the number of properties fur-

In cases observed by the Gisborne Veterinary Club staff over 80 per cent have originated on the eyeball. This differs from the classically described site of the lower or third eyelids. Depending on the progress of the disease, either the tumour can be removed from the eye or the whole eye ablated. Success depends on the state of the disease, but over all cases treated it has been better than 80 per cent. Metabolic Diseases Encountered

and 1948 show the figures computed from flocks which had rams examined —it would be rash to jump to any conclusions. said Mr. Crawford. It is felt that a prima facie case has been established. If. however, a two per cent, increase in lambing could - result from ram examination, it would justify more veterinarians turning their efforts to the prob’ems of the meat and wool industries (To be continued next week)

Other conditions are occasionally treated in run cattle, especially bulls, but they are considerably fewer. It may interest those more concerned with dairying that beef cattle are not entirely free from metabolic diseases. If any major contribution can lie made to the produrition of meat and wool by the veterinary or any other profession, it will be made in boosting natural increase of hillcountry flocks and herds to the maximum.

This maximum, Mr. Crawford said, will vary greatly according to the type of country, and, to a lesser extent, with breeds used. Though the club veterinarian may have ideas about more suitable breeds for certain types of country. his immediate job, at least, is getting the maximum potential production from those being used. In the ewe, the veterinarian can do little about fertility except advise on feeding prior to and at the time of mating. This advice is very much easier given than the production of feed at the right time under grazing conditions in a district subject to dry spells. 1 here is more exact knowledge of the factors causing sterility in the ram. To what extent male sterility affects lambing percentages under hillcountry conditions is not known. It is the writer's belief that male sterility may, on occasions, cause serious loss, Mr. Crawford added, but that generally it is not the main contributory cause of poor percentages. Reasons for this are difficult to advance, except that lambing figures over a period of years in any district seem to correlate closely with conditions of pastures in the iate summer and autumn months. Ram Easily Examined The ram, however, is an animal that can be examined for fertility easily and quickly. Gross abnormalities of the testicles can be felt through the scrotum. With practice, less obvious lesions are detected. In 1947, some 2G98 rams were examined by palpation of the testicles and classified into three groups, namely, sound, temporarily infertile and probably poor breeders, The examination is carried out as near as possible to the time of the rams being put out. The farmer is advised to use his sound rams at once, and put those marked as temporarily infertile out later. As the rams are only seen once, it is not known whether those with temporary sterility improve, but at least they are not competing with good rams in the first month of tupping. Probable poor breeders are culled as these show permanent lesions.

The year 1947 was one of the best lambings in the Gisborne district for many years. This piece of good luck resulted in a request for over MOO ram examinations in 1948. That year was one of poor percentages, but rather surprisingly to one dealing with farmers. this year the 9000 mark was exceeded. Farmer Opinion on Work. It will be appropriate here lo sum up farmer opinion on the results of

No. Cases Nine months to April 30, 1945 59 1946 158 1947 233 1948 281 1949 401

tile rams. COOK AND WAIKOHU COUNTIES COMBINED. Year Ewes Lambs Percent 1944 .. 804.862 718.686 88.6 1945 .. 781.212 691 890 88.4 1946 .. 770.000 662.605 84.6 1947 .. 764.865 687.182 89.8 1948 .. 768,487 645.530 84.2

1947 AND 1948. No. ProPer Year perties Ewes Lambs cent 1944 .. 21 70,843 63,022 88.9 1945 .. 25 81.192 72,860 89.8 194(5 .. 29 83.559 72.068 86.2 1947 24 67.832 65.488 96.5 1948 .. 30 78.675 69.866 89.0

nishing returns for that 3'ear. PERCENTAGE COMPARISON. Year Examined Counties group Difference 1944 .. .. 88.6 88.9 0.8 1945 .. .. 88.4 89.8 1.4 1046 .. 84.6 86.2 1.6 1947 .. .. 89.8 96.5 6.7 1948 .. .. 84.2 89.0 4.8 With onlv two rears’ results —1947