Farm and Station

Gisborne Times, Volume LXXIII, Issue 12075, 14 October 1933, Page 12

Farm and Station

(By “RESTTOBR”.)

SCIENCE' AND. WOOT

FEEDING OF MEAT MEAT

EXPERIMENT TN • QUEENSLAND

INCREASED WEIGHT OF FLIP

fan wool 'growth die stimulated by supplementing 'deficient pasture by ■appropriate products? It it can, will it pay the pastoraUst .to spepin.llv feed the necessary ingredients in the right proportions to his flock r it is known that the pastures m some parts of the Domnion arc deficient" in cystine, which, is one of the main ingredients in the wool keratin. The Australian Council for Scientific. and Industrial Research has been experimenting hi Queensland "to. ns certain if it is possible to effectively make good this deficiency on an economic basis, and the work of its officers has produced sonic striking results.

During 1020 an exoerimcnl was mi iialfd ,‘'i i Meteor Downs, Queens land, with two groups of 200 lambs. The lambs wore chosen in haphazard fasliioiv. and treated identically thronshout the year, except that one .oroun was siren ns much dried sterilised blood meal as the lambs would lake. This meal contained cystine and other proteins, and was not specially palatable to sheen. They ate it only when pasture was Lekin.r in succulence: there was hi fact a. most' interesting relationship between the condition of the pastuie and the amount of meal eaten per sheep. Throughout the rear the blood meal flock looked better an f f weighed move than the lambs in the control group. At the shearing of the lambs the average fleece of the meal flock was 31 ok heavier than that of •the control flock—an increase of 30 per emu. The cost was between 9d and lOd. The classing of the fleeces indicated in the words of the export classed who attended the shearing, that “apart from the- increased weight of each fleece, the clip lrom rh c control group was not as well nourished as that from the snpplcmeniarily fed animals. the latter showing a holder staple and much better defined character.” The tendency of the whole clip was in change from a tender 31 -70 V. in the controls to well-grown 6Ts in the treated animats.

Following on. these good results, the experiment was continued lor another year with slice,p one year old at the commencement. When Hi® sheep were shorn the figures showed a. greater difference even than the previous year. The mean increase of fleece this time was 3-1 oz. (and for feu months instead of iwelve). and the improved return had been gained by (he consumption of approximately 2 A per cent, less supplement than in the previous, year. Consumption ■ wns’ co'nTrnlfed "largely by the appetite of the animals io r the supplement. an c ] the appetite in turn was controlled by the extent of deficiency of the necessary units in ihc pasture.

STERILITY IX (OWN

CONTRIBUTORY ( A USES

Mr. W-. A. Stewart, the principal of the -Moulton Farm lin si itu le. contributes' an interesting note to the August. issue of Ihe Journal of ihe Ministry of Agriculture on feeding in relation to sterility in cattle (says an English paper). Slock breeders throughout the country are concerned about the loss arising from this cause.,, particularly- in dairy herds, which in some eases has become serious. It is pointed out that the modern cow is often treated more as a milking machine than as .a breeding animal, and if is partly because, of (his that difficulty is experienced in getting heavy milking cows to breed until late in the lactation. while in some instances they may prove permanently barren.’

ft is widely recognised that animals which have been forced into high condition for show purposes often fail to breed. A good deal of research has been done on this problem, and the latest. investigations support the assumption that both under-feeding and- over-feeding may he contributory causes. Lack of calcium and phosphorus are serious .factors, but the infonn/iLion is a little vague on the ouestion of mineral feeding. It would seem Prudent, however, to include the ordinary mineral mixture in rations for cotvs in order to guard against possible deficiency in the herbage and concentrated food. The .mixture generally used is compounded, of 1 >-2 parts ground chalk or limestone and 1-1 parts of iodized salt fed at the rnto of 2-3’b per owt of concentrated food. Some workers concerned frith nutrition take the view that balanced manuring of the soil is perhaps the most effective way of insuring a supply of the necessary mineral matter, particularly during tho grazing season, when it is difficult to devise a simple method of feeding minerals to animals that a,re not receiving concentrated food;

FLEECE DENSI TV

GROWTH OF WOOL

Investigations into wool growth on stud 'Merino rams at present in progress at the Grootfontein (.South Africa) School of Agriculture by. Messrs..- V. Bosnian and G. E. .Mere, sheep and wool research officers, have, brought to light sonic surprising facts in connection with density of fleeces.

Sixteen ■ rams of different, typos, ranging in ago from under one to over six years, have been under examination. The fleece weights in grease oh these .Tanged from 13. G to 32.41 b, and the number of fibres po r square inch, from 29,600 to 02,309. Assuming that the skin area- is 12 square feet, the latter means that a stud ram may have from 60 to 90 million fibres constantly growing at nn average rate op 4-10th inches per month on its skin. The density of the rams examined varied from 1.45 to 9.90 per cent., whi.cih means that 1 .to fo 2.90 per rent, of |ho skin area was occupied by wool fibres. Jt was also found that the wool fibres, plus iheir sweat and fat glands, occupied onlv from o ft per ceid. of the skin area, and therefore at ’east 92 per cent., of -ihe skin was hare. As the Desearch Officers point out, these findings are always most inrrodihlo to The practical man. For hy» hand and eye methods a fleece presents a oomnn.ctno.ss whEh it apnea rs 'impossible to corrcla+e with a 9 or ft per rent, density. They add. though, that the fleece when examined is usually in the greasy state, and the compactness is mostly due to woo] grease, snint, sand and air. and is aided by the springy foci of wool. Mueli of the den.s e fee] i s diminished when the fleece is freed from grease and adhering malleiTho question arises whether the Merino breeder has evolved maximum density. Does ft per cent, skin area occupied by fibres and glands, they ask, represent the utmost producing capacity of the Merino? -

PROSPECTS FOR AVOOJ

MEIMNOS METI S US . CROSSBREDS

A TRADE OPINION ON PRICES

According to an editorial in tho “Textile Mercury and Argus,” the increasing extent to which merino wool 'is preferred to crossbreds in all forms of wearing apparel, is having a big influence on the wool industry For some years there has been a gradual increase in the proportion of merinos to the total production of wool. but. ir is doubtful whether this lias kept pace with the trend towards merino products in the popular taste. i Experience ajnd inorea ; od knowledge of hygiene Imov provecd that warmth does not necessarily c-oniti-ckle with weight in clothing. The old idea of thickness for winter wear, for instance, has gone by the boardpud it is realised that Mio Same decree of warmth can. lie secured w.th lighter weight fabrics. If an actual record were made of the weight of wool in a. complete outfit of clothing twenty years ago in comparison with to-day, a striking difference would be found. The finest crossbreds or oß’s qualities should Ire included with merinos in considering this question because they are used to a considerable extent as a. Mend with merinos or as a substitute for merino qualities. A comparison between, the proportion of wool of dS's and above, used in the West Riding to-day and say twenty years ago, would reveal an enormous change. At one time crossbreds were predominant- in the wools used in, England, but nowadays more than half the wool going through the combs is composed of merinos and the finest crossbreds.

It would appear that the only thing which would force the pubic back on to the comparatively coarser types of wool, would be a sharp rise in prices, but it would have to bo sufficiently large to make an appreciable difference to tho price of the finished garment. Talcing a general view of conditions nnd : possibilities there is not an early prospect of prices rising to such a level as would make a real difference in this respect. The writer concludes: “It may be taken for granted that the preference for the finer grades will continue for a long time to come. This means that merino wools will be wanted in increasing quantities as the purchasing power of the community increases—as it. is bound to do in due course-”

WHAT SOUTH AFRICAN FARMERS' ARE FACING.

RESTS, DROUGHTS’ AND DISEASES.

Droughts, disease, pests and careless shearing are only some, of tho troubles in the Union of South Africa. ;■ Before tho recent drought South Africa bad 40,000,000 sheep but several millions ai'e reported to have died. Between the leopards, jackals, baboons, vultures, locusts, diseases; snakes, and the marauding pilfering natives from Basutoland, and “dry spells,” "tho losses are heavy and the profits with which to hah anco the budget, these days, are

not very considerable. If tli© XTnion lacks anything in pests (which it seemingly doesn’t) it makes m> for it, in diseases. The Union seems to be a hot-bed for these. Dipping is done-in a sort of bath-tub manner, swimming dips being practically nnknown, and compulsory dipping con fined for the most part to the native flocks. Tn fact, the only official supervision in this respect appears to be directed at the natives and their animals.

Shearing in SonUi Africa is done by natives. They have nn shearing sheds and 110 contractors. The shearing, for the most part, is purely a local and largely native affair, don° Ivy hand ishears in a. ‘back-to-mitnre’ environment. The sheep, which are run in small numbers by thojarmer, are rounded up in the paddock and in the. open, where the natives, armed generally with dogging shears, without either knockers or drivers, literally fall on their victims a n <l half denude I hem.

As many as seventeen hundred nips with the blades have been counted to dispose of the neck and bellyThe shearing is done on tarpaulin* which cannot ho kept as clean as a shed board. The native generaHly attires himself in homely raiments — most often a .jute-hag. He doesn’t bother if a few strands of this deleterioils vegetable matter gets into the wool. That is not his concern, nor anyone else's.

If |he native shearers are not efficient they aro at least cheap, Las* year the shearing rate in the Union was 3s 6d a hundred. There are iU counting yards or anything like that about the sheep farms there, so rhe native is given a token for each sheep he shears and he keeps his tally That way. Twenty a day is very good indeed. , it’s realty remarkable what gets into the wool sometimes. Ragstone* or something approaching them in hulk and weight, have been found in bales of .South African wool. They come about in 'this way. There fl re conijparaUvelv few wool presses over there. For the most part the wool h pressed by suspending the bale* with wire from the raiters and causing a nigger to tread the fleeces, skirtings or hollies, whichever they might happen to be. Frequently a heavy flat stone is placed in the bnl'n overnight as a kind of preliminary “dumping,” and removed —if not forgot ten—next morning.

WORK ON THE LAND

HEALTH EEL AVOCATION

LORD RLEDTSLOE’S ADVICE

“Do not be afraid toturn your hand to work on the land”, were the concluding words of advice given by the Governor-General, Lord Bledi?loe, to a gathering of unemployed boys at the Y.AT.C.A. at Christchurch. His Excellency said that be lelt there were going to be plenty of opportunities for remunerative work on the land. AVith reference to such work he had discovered, when ui Auckland, that many boys were afraid to tackle work on the land, as they did not feci physically fit for it; but lie pointed out that in one of the most crowded and unhealthy cities in Great Britain a movement to put young men on the land met with surprising success. Every bov had been told that m the first few weeks he had to remember to build up his physical strength. After a time each boy found That ho had the capacity to do the work, and that he was feeling fitter than ever before.

Advantages of work on the land, ,saij Lord Blediseoe, were, first, that it would present a good: career For those fitted for iT and, secondly that it would broaden the outlook of a man to he able to live m the open air and to work on a farm with the enormous variety of interests which farm life offered. If all thought they were going to live in towns and obtain employment in the towns it was not going to be for the best.

F()< >T V \ND-A1 OUTTT DISEASE

DRASTIC ACTION BRINGS HEAVY LOSSES.

Tho following arc the views of an English farmer on a subject which, is regularly under discussion by New Zealand farming bodies.

‘•The foot-and-mouth outbreaks mean an anxious time for pedigrtie stock-breeders, for they of the- whole rural community stand to lose most if their beasts come in contact with •dreaded virus. /AUhough eompensaion is paid on value, it is poor • consolation for the loss of a carefully built-up herd'. The nearest outbreak to me is only three miles away, and wo are taking precautions before any thing happens with liberal applications of disinfection. Wo have als managed to stop temporarily the local dairying inspectors from travelling from farm to farm. We cheer ourselves with, the thought that one of the strangest features of this strango dicase is its habit of jumping about from place to place over wide areas. Seldom does a fresh outbreak occur on a. farm close to one where an outbreak lias occurred already. At times like these people are naturally appalled at the terrible waste involved . in the policy of slaughter. But so long as iwe know so littlo of the disease ,there is no doubt that slaughter is justified. In France, where it is just left to run its course, it is estimated that ETio diease costs the farmers £5,000,000 a year by, loss of condition, reducion in breeding and decreased milk yields. Last year it cost us in, compensation only £16,000, and in the last big outbreak in TD3I, when 7, 310 wore slaughtered, it cost £70,000. But it would he interesting to hear any explanation of why Scotland and Ireland suffer so much less from foot-and-mouth than England. Ireland is usually blamed for outbreaks over here ,nnd in 1922-21 when we had our worst experience of this scourge in our history it was stated by quite responsible peoplo that the outbreaks emanated from the Emerald! Isle. At that. time 1 happened to be in Ireland and met

the chief dairying officer of the Irish Board of Agriculture (I have forgotten his exact title) at Curragh races. He took mo back with him to Diimtn and proved to mo that there had been no ease of I'oot-and-moutli in Ireland for several years.’’