Sheep in Winter

Manawatu Times, Volume LV, Issue 6864, 21 May 1932, Page 12

Sheep in Winter

MAINTAINING LIVE WEIGHT, PROVISION OP MINERALS. —• Tbo maintenance of live weight in ihcep during the critical months of dune, July and August, represents one of the most perplexing problems which confront, the flock-master throughout tho year. Typical New Zealand sheep country is usually hundreds of feet above sea level and, in many oases, removed far inland, being generally subject to tho rigours of wind, snow and rain. With a cessation of growth the sheep are forced to go further afield to obtain their food requirements, which at this time consists of older herbage deficient in respect of both quantity and quality. The advantages of supplementary feeding during these months are manifest, and are stressed by Mr B. 0. Aston, chief chemist, and Mr J. Lyons, director of tho live stock division of the Department of Agriculture, in an article concerning tho respective merits of pellet and lick feeding in the Journal of Agriculture. “During this period,” they say, "the animal probably cannot obtain the 31b. of dry matter a day which is held to be the normal requirement of each fully-grown sheep, and much of the fodder it is lucky enough to get then is deficient in mineral matter. It is then that the animal is compelled to live partly on the body reserves which have been stored up during tho periods of plenty—spring, summer and autumn. Sevoral pounds of live weight are therefore lost in the months of June, July and August in those sheep which continue on pasture without the aid of supplementary feeding, which on many runs it is not practicable to grow. Tho feeding of concentrated meal foods to sheep is quite possible, but tho large outlay in cash is a decided objection in this period of low returns to tho farmer. Eeoding Compound Pellets. Pellet-feeding is described as a method of feeding automatically both concentrated meal .foods and minerals to sheep in ono operation, without the need for special troughs or the necessity of rounding up the sheep to feed them. The meal foods—ground linseed, coconut (copra) from which tho excess tnl has been removed, and peameal (and there is no reason way fishmeal or meatmeal should not also be used) —are primarily designed, to make the mineral part of the supploment attractive to cheep so that when the animal has learnt to eat the pellets it may continue to do so, the attraction being maintained by the nutrient meals added. These contain energy and fat-produeing foods with a high degree of digestibility, and therefore in feeding mineral foods by this method the effect of tho nonminoral concentrated foods, or tho possible effect of suddenly stopping tho use of such foods, may bo overlooked. When compound pellets are fed to sheep in greater quantities than the baro amount necessary to secure a proper absorption of minerals tho technique of the method, tho writers suggest, requires to be studied. It should also be borne in mind that the market prices obtained by sheepfarmors at present hardly warrant the expenditure pf £ls a ton on supplementary food of which a single sheep may eat several ounces per day. Assuming that they Were given pellets which cost 3id per sheep weekly for the three months of Winter it would cost 3s fid for Sheep, but this could hardly be considered a practicable proceeding in tho light of the present price of wool. The experience in Scotland by those who use this method is that pellets, when properly made, can be scattered on tho ground, and tho sheep have acquired such a liking for them that immediately tho attendant appears in sight they muster themselves from tho surrounding hills in an endeavour to obtain more than their share; but by scattering pellets judiciously on tho ground the aver-