BY THE WAYSIDE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 80, 16 March 1936, Page 11

BY THE WAYSIDE

Topics of Farming Interest “A.C.E.” Where available, ensilage is an excellent food for sheep. The quantity to be fed will depend on several factors, the most important of which are the amount; of natural feed available and the age of the sheep. Breeding ewes have been fed lor months in succession on ensilage alone, the quantity fed varying from two aud a-half to four pounds per day. Usually, however, ensilage alono does not provide a well balanced ration, and it is advisable to add other foods rich in protein.

“Cockey”: Cripples is due to the want of essential mineral salts in the food. The provision of suitable “licks” containing lime, iron and salt goes a great way, towards prevention of tho disease and also assists in recovery. “Licks’’ arc obtained f rom most general stores in country districts, or can be obtained from firms advertising in the “Herald.”

J.L.F.: “Moisture content” in butter means the actual percentage of water contained in the finished product. “Overrun” on the other hand means the percentage by which the amount of butter produced by a factory exceeds the butter fat purchased. It includes in addition to moisture, salt, some vasein, milk sugar and ash.

W.A.: The Southdown is generally regarded as tho most useful breed to use as a sire for the production of fat lambs. The Southdown has many points in its favour, of which the following are perhaps the most important:—l. The great bulk of our fat lambs aro exported to Great Britain, where the highest priced lambs are of short carcass, broad of back, deep in the hind quarters, carrying the minimum of bone, and sired by a black-faced ram, and the Southdown ram is the one which produces this type with more certainty than does any other breed. 2. Tho Southdown retains its high rate of fertility in our warm climate a good deal better than most other of the mutton producing breeds of sheep, with the result that more lambs are secured from a given number of ewes when mated to Southdown rams. Although lambs sired by Southdown rams may not develop as rapidly as lambs by some other breed ol rams, they possess wonderful fattening qualities, and practically all lambs bred by Southdown rams eventually become marketable, no matter how severe the conditions were whilst being reared. This power of recovering from a set-back received when young is of great value in those districts where feed may be short at lambing time. The lambs by Southdown rams lose less on slaughter than by any other breed of rain. 5. When fat lambs are reared under ordinary farming conditions those by Southdown rams will produce a higher percentage of first grade lambs than will any other cross.