FEEDING STOCK ARTIFICIALLY.

Hawera & Normanby Star, Volume XLII, Issue 7543, 19 August 1902, Page 4

FEEDING STOCK ARTIFICIALLY.

The following extracts from a letter to I the Sydney Morning Herald by Mr Pitt, ! of au auctioneering firm, Pitt, Son, and Badgery, are interesting, as showing the various means adopted to keep alive flocks during the drought : Having lately visited Burrawang station, on the Lachlan river, below Forbes, where over 100,000 sheep are being artificially fed, it will probably interest many of your readers to hear something of how it is being done. Burrawang is specially adapted for feeding sheep, there being four railway sidingß practically on the property, and the country is very level, with plenty of hard ground in most of the paddocks. Tbe run at the present time is destitute of grass, and the stock are dependent on what is given them. The ration is Jib of wheat i and Jib of hay per day, fed in the forenoon if possible, and a little sorub cut in the afternoon, though not much. The hay I saw came from Victoria, and was very good, some wheaten and some oaten, the former preferred. The wheat came from Temora, and was a fair sample. The fodder is received at the several sidings, and conveyed by 12 teams to convenient depots in various parts of the run— some 40 or more of these, just small enclosures wired in to keep out the stock. The distribution of the feed is done with spring carts or vans, one man to each, and the grain is fed with a light shovel direct from the bags, right and left, as the cart moves along, the aim being to distribute it over as wide an area as possible. Feeding the wheat through a funnel in the bottom of a distributing cart was tried first, but had to be discontinued, as some of the sheep got too much, and died. The hay is distributed from the cart by hand, just a light trail, as it were, following the vehicle some little distance away from the wheat. The : sheep make first for the grain, which is given to them dry, and Boon settle down to ' feed, like a lot of poultry in a yard. They then pass backwards and forwards to the hay till everything is eaten, which generally takes two or three hours, nothing of the hay being left except a few thick straws to Bhow where it had fallen. Great care is taken, to feed the wheat on hard, firm ground, so that the sheep will not pick up the dirt, and the feeding places are being continually changed. If the ground is wet, grain is not given, as it sticks to the earth, and for the same reason soaked wheat is not used. Care is also taken not to let any strings fall with the hay, as this sometimeb kill sheep. The sheep are all in small lots, very few over a thousand in any of the paddocks ; the less number in a paddock the better they do. Abundance of rocksalt is scattered about the paddocks, as this is very necessary when sheep are getting dry feed.

The sheep are principally watered at troughs, and when water has failed in any cf the paddocks it is carted to them, a 400 gallon tank in a van being used for the puipose, and it answers very well. From experience the Messrs Edols have found that &lb of wheat is the maximum daily quantity that can be given with safety, and if the hay has much grain in it less than the full ration of wheat is given. A sure evidence sheep are getting too much grain is when they show signs of proppiness in the fore legs. The sheep generally look very well, much better than I expected to see them. The Meeers Edols started feeding several months ago — at first on hay, and then, as it became necessary, adding the wheat. At present the sheep's daily ration is 23 tons of hay, and the same quantity of wheat, and they have 140 men employed, and over 200 horses, the latter being all in splendid condition. The work of feeding goes on aB if it were part of the ordinary station routine ; in fact, it has been reduced to a science, and I doubt if Bny more perfect system could be devised. With wheat and hay at present prices it coßts something like 5Jd per head per week to feed, and the Messrs Edols are not only doing themselves a service, but the country also, in saving such a splendid flock of sheep from annihilation.

Cn the Warrah Estate, Liverpool Plains, sheep-feeding is likewise being carried en in a wholesale manner, but the conditions are entirely different to Burrawang. Warrah is about 30 miles long, by 13 wide, with the railway running through a corner of the property. Thirty-two horse and bullock teams are employed to convey the fodder from the railway station to the various paddocks where the sheep are running, besides a considerable number of one-horse vehicles for distribution. The surface soil in all the paddocks is friable, and quite unsuited for feeding grain on the ground, so that it has been found necessary after feeding on bay for some time to feed on chaff and wheat in troughs. These are made from chaff bags, and are the neatest things I have seen, having been made by sailors Bent up from Newcastle, and they look almost as if they had been woven. They are held up by a wire each side, and another wire about a foot above the trough down the centre to keep the sheep from jumping into it, and it answers the purpose admirably. About 40,000 ewes with their lambs are being fed at the troughs, the ration being lib. of chaff and Jib. of wheat daily fed morning and afternoon, besides mangolds daily, and lucerne hay occasionally. The water is good and convenient, and there is a pick of rough old grass in the paddocks. lam in hopes they will Bave half the lambing, which will be a grand thing with such valuable sheep, for last year the whole flock of 130,000 grown sheep cut about 101b of wool.

In addition to the ewes and lambs, they are feeding tbe maidens on hay, and are now putting about 17,000 ewe hoggets on chaff and wheat, the ration being lib of chaff and Jib of wheat per day. The maidens will have to be treated in the same way very shortly, as they will not hold condition on the hay without grain. The sheep all round look very well, and carry heavy fleeces, tbe losses outside lambs being confined to the lambing, say, about 6 per cent, more than the ordinary mortality. In addition to the ewes, the company are feeding over 2000 rams and a number of oattle, and the only anxiety the management have is as to the certainty of getting fodder should the drought be prolonged any considerable time. When one comes to consider the enormous amount of money Burrawanga and Warrah are spending to keep their sheep alive, not to mention scores of others similarly situated, it is hard to realise the callousness of our Federal Government in praotioally shutting out New Zealand and Argentine supplies of fodder. Fancy a duty of L 2 5a per ton on New Zealand mangolds, turnips, and carrots, worth on the farms in .Canterbury from 10s to 12s 6d per ton ! And yet these roots are practically the only fodder that can be ground-fed to ewes to give them milk to rear lambs.