BY THE WAYSIDE

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXVI, Issue 143, 2 June 1936, Page 11

BY THE WAYSIDE

Topics of Farming Interest in Hawkes Bay “STEAMING UP” COWS Those agricultural organisers and others who have induced farmers to "steam up’’ their cows with a view to producing high yields have done injury to the live stock industry, said a vetinary authority at a meeting of the Farmers’ Club in London, It had, he said, reduced the cow’s power of resistance to disease and reduced her usefulness in the herd. Nothing diminished a cow’s production more than irregular milking. The increase in animal disease during recent years was attributed by another speaker to the overstocking of farms resulting from modern methods of the means taken to obtain high production in dairy animals and early maturity in pigs. * * • It is to bo feared that the suggestion some weeks ago of badly diseased potato crops in many districts will prove only too true. A number of farmers state that when the potatoes have been lifted they look quite all right, but after exposure to the air for three or four days they commence to show signs of going bad, and when they are opened up disease in many cases is apparent. This has occurred in crops on loamy soils where there has been reasonable drainage, so what will happen on the heavier potato land can be left to conjecture. I’be crop in many districts has never been freed from a more or less waterlogged condition as a result of the frequent falls of rain in the early autumn, and in such cases the usual experience is a lack of keeping quality. It is very difficult to estimate the amount of damage incurred in a crop covering such a wide area as the potato growing land of Canterbury, but from reports received from various parts of the southern end of the province the position is not satisfactory even there. It appears as if disease and bad keeping will feature the potato crop this season to a greater extent than” for very many years. ♦ * « 'The one thing that should not be neglected in the feeding of the pig is greenstuff, especially good leafy grass. There is grass and grass, and very few pigs get the type of grass they need. It is almost impossible to keep the grass right where runs are not sub--divided or rested. A pig will eat anv green thing as long as it is fresh but be will not eat soiled grass. Where fresh green grass is made available pigs, even the little ones on the mother will neglect their ordinary food for it. Such grass is probably the best source of vitamins, and this is one reason why it is so valuable to stock that graze on it, and why they prefer it. By natural instinct the animal eats the thing it most needs. • * * An argument being used is that consolidation of our light soils is even more important than harrowing. True, it is most desirable that light soils should be consolidated, for this means providing the right soil conditions for ryegrass and the better grasses. Time and again this fact must have come home to the observant farmer, for where there are tracks, and around gateways, the ryegrass seems to thrive under this system of natural punishment. Then there is the good effect of crowding big mobs of sheep on a small area and the wonderful influence of pigs in rapidly developing a ryegrass sward. It is stated by British research workers that the effect of the treading of sheep extends to even a greater depth than the effect of the plough. And the same thing would probably apply to tho treading effect of pigs. It is here where the value of the small field and the uso of sheep as followerson is seen tc be so important.