MASSEY AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXII, Issue 270, 29 October 1932, Page 4

MASSEY AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE

MONTHLY BVLLETIX, INDIGESTION IN DAIRY CATTLE. (By J.’ M. McLindcn, M.R.C.V.S., N.D.A.). Of all subjects which should be of interest to the dairy farmer, this should be the most engrossing. Strangely enough it is not. xulks uuU lectures on abortion, sterility, muiumiUs and su on ho muck prefers. This is because such conditions work their mischief in a way which is more apparent to him than indigestion usually manifests itself. If one just stops to think for a moment, the importance of this subject will readily be agreed. What is the most important function in the body if life is to be maintained! ft is digestion. Without a functioning digestive system life becomes impossible. Just us it is essential to life, we find that the health of the animal is maintained at a corresponding level to that of the efficiency o't the digestive tract. In other words, the better the state of health of the digestive tract, the better will the general health of the individual be. That statement alone will show to many the numerous consequences which may arise from any derangement of the digestive tract. Once it is thrown out of its normal functioning, it is impossible in most instances to state what will definitely result. What can he said is that once the general health of the animal has been lowered anything in the form of disease may arise as a consequence. Those dreaded diseases, abortion, sterility and mammitis, although not directly brought about" through indigestion, are to a very great extent stimulated into activity due to indigestion. It must be remembered, for example, that all animals suffering from contagious abortion do not lose their calf before the normal gestation or carrying period is up. But should any affected animal be subject to a severe check in its nutrition through gastric (stomach) and/or intestinal derangement, its normal resistance to the presence of this organism which is the cause of abortion is broken down and so the organism has an unchecked career within the body. This unhampered existence of the parasite becomes manifest with the cow slipping her calf. The same is probably true with regard to mammitis. Many will contend, of course, that this is due to machine milking, dirty and infected hands and so on. Quite so, but without going into a discussion and reply to these statements, this question will be asked. How does that account for the disease in yearling heifers which are not even in calf! To these diseases could be added many more for the dairy cow which, so far as we are aware, are due solely to constitutional disturbance. For example inpaction of the stomachs, either individually or collectively, atony of the stomachs, the same conditions in the bowel, post parturition sickness, and so on. These conditions are all very closely associated with digestion. If the digestion is impaired some of these conditions will very, quickly establish themselves and once they have done so it becomes very much more difficult to re-establish normal digestion. As many dairy farmers depend on horse labour for haulage, it. might be permissible in an article of this kind to say that indigestion in the horse is responsible for such conditions as lymphangitis, better known by the names, Monday morning leg and weed, laminitis or dropping of the sole, papillary eruptions of the skin, colic and impactions. Practically all of these conditions were to be seen in the Manawatu district last autumn. QUALITY OF FOOD. So far as is known there is not only one definite cause of indigestion: It has many causes which may all be responsible individually, or in combination. Of first rate importance is the quality of the food. Foodstuffs for the dairy cow, many seem to think are perfectly suitable if the cow will eat it. It must be remembered that a hungry animal has not a delicate appetite. A heavy producer has not a delicate appetite. Nor has* she necessarily a delicate constitution because she falls martyr to more trouble than a low producer. The heavier a producer a cow is the more care should be taken of the quality of her food, because she eats much more. If this is poor in quality trouble will arise, maybe not at once, but time will tell its tale. Of course, the food need not necessarily be mouldy or excessively over-heated to constitute poor quality. Hay which has been cut when over-ripe, no matter how well harvested, is a poor type of food; that is, if animal health comes into the picture of farming at all. With regard to salting, a few words of warning will not be out of place. Salting, judiciously done, is a very good thing to practise. But, it must not be done with the intention, as many do, of getting the stock to eat hay which they would otherwise almost refuse to eat. Because a cow eats such stuff is not to say that it is going to do her good. A cow was observed chewing a piece of metal which she swallowed before it could be removed from her mouth. Something in the taste made her chew it, but it did her no good—she died. Mouldy, wet salted hay will make her die, too. Mouldy hay alone, such as one finds in stack bottoms, and fed out in wet weather is dangerous to the life of cattle. One cannot afford to neglect passing a few remarks on the conditions of pastures. When these are allowed to grow tufted and run to seed to excess, there is bound to follow an aftermath of trouble. This is particularly so if the season is a dry one, like last summer and autumn. But any autumn is a potential source of danger to the farmer. It is during this season that most of his subsequent losses are establi hed, An endeavour

should bo made to eliminate this danger. The spring is usually welcomed. Grass conics away afresh. Unfortunately, it is too fresh. Young spring grass can be eaten in too great quantities and the stock usually do consume it with avidity so long as it lasts. . We all know the consequences. PREVENTION. The endeavour of the former should be to try to prevent trouble. So far as digestive trouble is concerned he will do so quite easily if he keeps his stock on as even a type of food as he can all the your round. This ho cannot do without growing some supplementary food and changing his stock from the grass to the supplementary food by easy stages. As to the economies of growing crops, no discussion is going to be entered into. As to whether it is more profitable to grow crops or lose stock, the farmer "himself can be the only judge so far as the veterinary surgeon is concerned.