ROTATION OF STOCK.

Mount Ida Chronicle, Volume 38, Issue 38, 28 August 1908, Page 1

ROTATION OF STOCK.

Writing of the sheep sickneas and cow sickness of pastures, with special reference to the bush lands of the West Coast of the North Island, Hip£ Kuia says in the Pastoralists' Review:— "Two settlers felled and grassed their adjoining sections the same year, the seed sown and the nature of the soil being exactly alike. A grazed his with sheep, except a few herd of cattle scattered through the paddocks as is the usual custom, aril so far has been considered good farming. For the first few yeare A in his paddock adjoining B's grazed three breeding ewe» to the acre and his flock was noted as being the best in the district. After a time it was found that the paddocks would not carry so many sheep an formerly, until two instead of three sheep to the acre was found enough, and even with the lesser number neither the ewes nor the lambs were so robust.

"It seems to follow as a sequence that when pastures begin to fail the stamina of the sheep follow suit, although there may be plenty of grass of a'sbrt in "sights It may be contended that the falling off in robustness of the flock was due to bad breeding. But it was not so in this case. A was one of the best judges in the island, and never spared money in pocuring the strongest and best rams procurable. Yet he could noi prevent his flock going back when the pasture deteriorated in nutrition B was not considered to be on the same plane as A as a farmer and certainly worked without any system For a year or two he would graze nothing but sheep Then cattle would take his fancy until such time as another fit took him, and the cattle would be cleared off, while at other periods sheep atod cattle would be grazed together. The result was that When A's load would carry only two sheep to the aere, and then only indifferently, B's land was capable of carrying three sheep 'real well.' This object kssDn was on the West Coast, and in conversation with a. Wairarapa farmer on the subject, he gave me his personal esperiennce, Which was exactly similar. '' When pasture begins to deteriorate it is termed sh«ep-sick, or that it is infestedwith lungworm or other microbes But there are large areas of land sheep sick where there is absolutely no disease, only that the sheep get into a debilitated state, and do not thrive, although there is abundance of grass, which proves that some nuritrioua constituent is lacking in the soil or grasses. Dairying may be considered in its infancy, yet already we hear complaints that the land is becoming cowsick, the remedy for which is to stock with sheep for a time. In the olden times in Australia we used to stoak the horse paddock with sheep with good results. It is on these facts that I would suggest a system of rotation both as a maintenance of pasture land and perhaps in a lesser" degree at a renovator. Taking the majority of farms here, a certain proportion of cattle are run with the sheep with the object of keeping down the rank or coarser grasses, so that it would be an easy matter to test whether some such system as the following would not give such good results: — "Keep one paddock clear of sheep for a year or longer, grazing it with cattle only, following up with sheep the next year or period, so going round the farm in rotation. Another reason for such rotation is that there is no better remedy for the i prevention or cure of scour of lambs than to shift them into the cow paddock. Some may contend that

rough cattle feed is no good for Jamba. At one time I was of that' opinion, but after 'seeing the way that a lot fcf weakly scouring lambs improve: if given a a run in 'the cow paddock, I have to alter my ideas! Autumn growth of grass is often soft and washy-washy, and therefore: liable ?to cause scour even if clean, and the lambs strong, whereas when put 'in thecowpaddock they must perforce nibble a bit of the old dry'grass along with the too succulent young growth. Perhaps some young grazitr will experiment in the direction ufdicattd and give readers of Tbe Review the result." '%