SOIL CONDITIONS.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 7 January 1928, Page 14

SOIL CONDITIONS.

INFLUENCE ON LIVESTOCK,

There is striking evidence of a direct relationship between the development of cattle and fertility of the soil. When land is impoverished through rears of cropping or when it lacks certain elements of fertility, it is often expressed in the physical condition of livestock fed upon the crops it produces. In North-eastern Wisconsin, says Hoard’s Dairyman, there occurs among some herds of dairy cattle a disease called pica. A recent investigation discloses the fact that this disease is due to lack of phosphorus in the soil. The plants grown on it, whether grass, hay, or grain, do not provide a sufficient quantity of this element to nourish dairy cows properly. Investigations by the Wisconsin Experiment Station show that supplying phosphoric fertiliser to the land or phosphorus to the ration serves to prevent the trouble. Cattle grazing on pastures not reinforced with fertilisers should be given bran or should be provided with steamed bone meal. Instances of this kind show conclusively that there is a direct relationship between the quality of the soil and the quality of livestock. In sections where the soil is incomplete in its fertility,_it necessitates an understanding of what it lacks before stock raisers can hope to produce the finest kind of animals or to get the highest returns from them.