WINNING SUCCESS

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXXIII, Issue 22545, 9 October 1936, Page 5

WINNING SUCCESS

HIGHER PRODUCTION TWO PRIME FACTORS SOIL AND THE STOCK BY H.B.T. Increased production from farm animals is limited primarily by two factors —the fertility of the soil and the ability of the animal to make the most economical use of all available food. That the fertility of the soil can be enormously increased by adopting modern methods of farming has been demonstrated beyond argument, and as it is from this source that the whole of tho primary producer's wealth is desired, its improvement to maximum production should be his first consideration. Hand in hand with soil building and pasture improvement should go the development of animals capable of returning the greatest profit from the food consumed. This ideal can only bo realised if the improvement in production of the stock is based on absolute soundness of constitution. There are thus two fundamentals — soil fertility and stock constitution —on which successful sheep and cattle farming is based and it should be apparent how essential a knowledge of these two is to the practical farmer. A Parallel Much has been written regarding soil and pasture improvement, most of which is outside tho scope of an article such as this which is concerned principally with tho development of profitable sheep. It is worthy of mention, however, that successful pasture establishment depends primarily upon sowing down tho land in grasses and clovers which will thrive in the locality and build up tho fertility of the land at the same time as they provide all that the animal requires for perfect development. Similarly, the development of sound and highly productive stock can only be achieved where these are adapted to their environment. As the pasture improves, so also should the size, quality and productiveness of the stock carried thereon. When care has been exercised in breeding to maintain absolute soundness of constitution in the stock, nature regulates their size to conform to the nutriment available. Any attempt to run counter to this law, by increasing the size of animals without first im-i proving their food supply—by which their size is regulated—is doomed to failure. Unless stock are abundantly nourished in proportion to their increased size resulting from selective breeding, they become worse in form, slower in reaching maturity and less hardy, or more subject to disease. Early Breeders

Early maturity is, however, not always an indication of strength and health, especially when " early maturity " is confused with " early fecundity.'' Nature gives the weaklings of our generation a chance to warrant their contained existence as a type by bringing them early to the stage where they can reproduce. The weak grass throws up a seed head early in the season; tho stunted and doomed fruit tree bears long before its healthy and vigorously-growing mates; the weedy " skim dick " dairy heifer, or the stunted cull hogget, come into season when their sturdier sisters are quite immature in this respect. Most fatal diseases, too, in their early stages, stimulate the sexual organs to abnormal and early activity. Early fecundity may therefore be a signi of weakness rather than of strength. Ihis early fecundity, or breeding maturity, is an attempt on nature's part to perpetuate the species, and thus an immense number of " unfits " are yearly produced to swell the number which nature normally culls by her vigorous methods. " Unfitness " is frequently the result of unsuitable environment, and not of constitutional weakness. Nature, in the working of her law of evolution, provides that from parents in unsuitable environments offspring better adapted to the unfavourable surroundings are produced and may survive and thrive.

Preserving the " Unfits " Living under nature's simple laws, animals are remarkably free from disease and sickness, for all those with weaknesses which trend toward disease are mercifully culled before it has time to become established. It is a different matter when man takes a hand in preserving these weaklings by giving them especially favourable treatment. Starting with perfectly healthy parent stock, nature's methods cull nearly fifty per cent of the life created before it reaches maturity, and thus only is the vitality of the species maintained. On the other hand, man manages to preserve from seventy-five to ninety per cent of the young born to domesticated stock. Twenty-five to forty per cent of these are " unfits,'' all of which contain the predisposing weaknesses, if not the seeds of disease, and from these he usually proceeds to breed other weaklings. Tho farmer cannot afford to adopt nature's method of culling by the survival of the fittest, but he should certainly learn to detect those animals which nature would cull if left to herself. These he should dispose of at tho first profitable opportunity. They should never bo allowed to enter the breeding stock. The first duty of any man who takes up livestock breeding, then, should be to learn thoroughly the indications of strength or weakness of constitution, for this is the foundation of the profitable utilisation of tho soil's products. Tho sheepman who strives to found a flock on " unfits " culled by a more observant breeder is simply buying failure, however attractive their wool may be. Better, by far, to purchase four or five year ewes cast for age, and bo content with the one or two years lambing that can be got from them. These older sheep have survived the cullings from two tooth upwards and should be constitutionally sound. In these days of high prices for almost any quality of stock, deep culling is too frequently neglected, but for steady, profitable returns and a minimum of losses, follow nature's methods and eliminate all the weaklings—if possible through tho freezing works.