RAGWORT POISONING.

Hawera Star, Volume XLVII, 9 June 1928, Page 5

RAGWORT POISONING.

FARMER’S HEAVY LOSS. A WARNING TO OTHERS. Mention was made in a recent issue of the “Wanganui Chronicle” of heavy mortality of lambs in the Waverley district, the cause of death being moie or less a mystery. , .. . . , A well-known farmer m tins distiict has had a. rather unenviable experience in connection with sheep. Interviewed hv a importer, he mentioned having purchased at the sale yard® a hue of some 300 ewes in lamb, which had boGii trucked from "fclie M&nutaiu district. On the short drive from ' the yards to the purchaser’s farm two ewes died on the road, and finding another six dead the following morning he immediately invoked the assistance of the stock inspector, Mr. C lei and, and the Government veterinarian, Mr. Thompson, both gentlemen stating that death was due to ragwort poisoning. The ewes continued dying, and up to the present time some 50 have been lost, while many of the remainder have every appearance of doing likewise. The farmer in question desires to state that the auctioneers sold the sheep in absolutely good faith, and be cannot speak too highly of the treatment lie received from the firm. At the same time he considers it only fair to his fellow-fanners to warn them not to purchase sheep without some guarantee that they have not come off ragwort country. ' Many farmers do not, apparently, fully appreciate the danger of ragwort, and it may he that only hard experience will awaken them.