HEAVY LOSS OF LAMBS

Hokitika Guardian, 1 October 1929, Page 1

HEAVY LOSS OF LAMBS

EFFECTS OF THURSDAY’S STORM. The bitterly cold weather of Thursday and Friday was responsible for the loss of a good many lambs in the Hororata district. It is reported that on one farm 150 lambs were lost during the storm, and on another 100. Very wintry weather has been experienced there since Thursday. Rain set in about our o’clock on Thursday afternoon. On Friday morning 117 points of rain was recorded and the ground was white with snow which continued to fall at intervals, accompanied by a bitterly cold south-west wind. The storm has taken a heavy toll among young .lambs in the Mount Somers district, individual losses of from twenty to thirty being reported on Friday morning. Snow to a depth of an inch fell on Friday night, and on Saturday morning ten degrees of frost was registered. The weather then appeared to settle.

Friday was the coldest and most stormy day experienced at Oxford this season. The temperature was low, and throughout the day there were showers of rain or snow or hail. The effect of the storm on lambs has been disastrous. Few lambs born on Thursday or throughout the night survived, and the mortality in .some cases was great. On some farms the number of deaths varied from twenty to thirty. The loss is very serious to the owners, especially as this is an accentuated repetition of what occurred in the previous week.