THE RURAL WORLD.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22268, 22 May 1934, Page 3

THE RURAL WORLD.

By Eusticcs.

FARM AND STATION NEWS.

OTAGO PROVINCIAL SHEEP DOG ASSOCIATION THIS YEAR'S TRIALS. The association has fixed the following locations and dates for the collie dost trials for 1934: Miller's Flat—May 22, 23, and 24. ' Clutha.—May 25, 26, and 28. Warepa.—May 29, 30, and 31; June 1 (Otago Provincial Championship). Tuapeka.—June 15, 16, and 18. South Island Sheep Dojr Association Championship (to be held at Strath Taierij—June 19, 20, 21. and 22. ANSWER TO CORRESPONDENT "Cross" (Crookston): Both the Ryeland and the Southdown possess the thick, fleshy, nuggety, carcass in such keen demand on the Smithfield Market, so that no good purpose would be served in crossing these two breeds. The main difference between the two breeds is the better fleece of the Ryeland, a fact which might prove an advantage in crossing if it is necessary to carry over some of the seaeon's drop of lambs. It would be far better, however, to mate either breed with a good crossbred ewe got by a combination of the merino and any long-woolled breed. Persistency of Lucerne In view of comments made in these columns recently on the subject of the success which has attended the cultivation of lucerne in Central Otago, the experience of a well-known Galloway Flat dairyman is ipteresting. _ An area was sown down in lucerne in 1929. Ine germination was poor and the crop was given none of the treatments which have been recommended by the Department of Agriculture for renovation purposes, and since sowing it has had to weather some abnormally dry seasons. Moreover, it ha s been heavily grazed at times when other feed has been scarce, and m addition it has provided as many as five cuts of hay in a year. This crop has shown without a doubt that lucerne can be expected to last several years with only casual treatment, and it has been definitely proved in the same district that with reasonable care and top-dressing lucerne will continue to provide valuable fodder for more than 10 years. The Galloway experiment area proved this to the satisfaction of dairymen on the Flat before it was closed up. It might be stated that the crop referred to above had the benefit of inoculation with cultures furnished by the Department of Agriculture.

New Zealand Friesian Association The balance sheet of the New Zealand Friesian Association for the year ended March 31, 1934, shows an expenditure for the 12 months of £2448 9 S compared with an income of £2367 6s Bd. The accumulated fund, therefore, which stood at £1985 4s 8d at the close of last year now stands at £1904 2s 4d. Sundry creditors and the bad debts reserve bring the total liabilities as at March 31 to £2999 10s Bd. The annual meeting of the association will be held in Hamilton on May 31.

Otago Herd's Successes Of the 11 cows listed in the annual report of the New Zealand Friesian Association as producing over 7001 b of butterfat for the 1933 season, eight bear the Rosevale prefix of the well-known stud of Messrs H. North and Sons, Omimi. The best performer of these w*s the four-year-old, Rosevale Queen Echo Sylvia, who produced 20,03915 of milk, vjelding 780.261 bof butter-fat. The lowest Rosevale bred cow was Rosevale Sylvia Beets Posch, a six-year-old, whose total butter-fat production for the period amounted to 700.891 b. Threshing Returns

■lf the threshing turns out as wen for the whole season as it has done up to the present, the total return from the 294,000 acres under wheat in New Zealand this year will be 9,555,000 bushels, compared with the unusually heavy return ot 11,054,972 bushels last year. Figures so far available show that up to April 26 of this year 4,164,421 bushels have been threshed, giving a return of 32.44 bushels to the acre. At the same date last year the threshing was 6,611,805 bushels, an average of 58.52 an acre. Estimates ot damage by frost and hail made at the beginning of the season were unduly pessimistic, and the crop has turned out better than was then expected. It is estimated that of last year's surplus the board still holds 400,000 bushels, and this added to the anticipated surplus of 500,000 to 600,000 bushels this year, will bring the carry-over to next season to about 1,000,000 bushels, estimating the requirements ef the country at from 8,000,000 to 9,000,000 bushels of milling, feed, and seed wheat.

Chilled Beef Quality A statement that New Zealand chilled beef, if attention were paid to quality, would eventually beat the Argentine product' was made the other night at a gathering of farmers at Carterton by Mr T. A. Duncan, a member of the Meat Producers' Board. Mr Duncan congratulated Messrs Borthwick and Sons on their initial shipments. The shipping companies had risen to the occasion and bad delivered the beef in London in almost perfect condition. He had a great deal of faith in the future for the chilled beef trade. The need of getting younger cattle of the best breed possible was stressed by Mr Duncan. He expressed the belief that if the quality were built up New Zealand would eventually beat the Argentine product, whi'ch, he said, lacked the flavour possessed by the best quality beef from New Zealand. The reason, he said, was that New Zealand had the best English pastures, against alfalfa in Argentina. The cattle New Zealand should aim at were three-year-old steers—from two years and nine months to not exceeding three years and a-half. If these cattle were well bred and well fatttened, he did not think there would be better anywhere. As to the grading of beef, the board, he said, considered that they should have nothing but the firstclass article, so as to command the highest prices. After detailing how his firm made the initial shipments, Mr P. Borthwick said they believed that the chilled beef trade was going to be a very great thing for New Zealand. The firm was making further shipments, one in a fortnight's time and another at the end of June, and, if possible, one in July. The trade was very young, and it would take time to get the cattle. As they got further away from the experimental stage they hoped to be able to pay a little more for the beef, and the farmer would then, he hoped, find that it paid him to grow the type of cattle wanted. It was important to ship the right type of cattle.

DOOR TO CLEAN MILK HERDS RIDDLED WITH TUBERCLE (From .ouu Own Correspondent.) LONDON, April 13. For the first time on record, women attended the annual dinner of the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons. Seventeen women now hold the qualification to practise. . . , Professor Gaiger (president ot tlie college) criticised the "Clean Milk" campaign, maintaining that a start was being made at the wrong end. _ _ " The Governi'ient." he said, is giving money for milk publicity, but I do not see why the amount should not be devoted to securing tubercle-free herds. There lies the door to clean milk. No amount of publicitv will make the British mother give her children tilberculous milk. "If I were a Mussolini I should hare a placard printed and displayed with the

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words: ' It is easier to get a camel through the eye of a needle than it is to increase the sale of mill&until it is tubercle-free. Our herds are riddled, and we are only beginning to touch the fringe of the problem, but things are moving." . Professor H. J. W. Hethcrington (University of Liverpool) said that though, there were schools of veterinary science working in close association with universities, he believed that only at Liverpool was the school of veterinary science part of the ordinary activities of the university. ... DISEASES OF SHEEP INTESTINAL PARASITES TREATMENTS AND PRECAUTIONS USE OF 'JETRACHLORETHYLEJS'g. Intestinal parasites occasion considerable economic loss to sheepowncrs. Apart from deaths due to these parasites, which are sometimes considerable among lambs and young sheep, a serious reduction in the growth of wool, condition, development, and resistance to other diseases is the natural result of worm infestation. Much has been written upon this subject, and many suggestions have been put forward as to treatment and prevention. Many drenches have been used, and still intestinal parasites of sheep continue to cause as much, if not more, trouble arid anxiety than they did in the past. In this article the writer, Mr 11. A. Veron, a leading Sydney-author-ity, endeavours to throw some light upon the subject. INSIDIOUS EFFECTS. The work of intestinal parasites, lie says, is insidious as a rule. The progress of the disease is usually slow. In the early stages there is an absence ot danger signals to warn the owner of their presence. The usually slow development of unthrif tineas may lead owner to blame the pasture or to condemn the sheep as poor doers. '• The damage produced by worms may be caused in several ways:— _ By producing \ toxins which are absorbed by the blood, and which cause its degeneration by destroying the red cells and producing an anfemic condition. By causing wounds, through which tlie causal organisms of other diseases may j enter the blood. By damaging certain parts and organs of the body or by robbing the sheep ot the food required for its own sustenance In order to deal efficiently with the intestinal parasites of sheep it is necessary that the life cycle of the parasites should be understood. Owing to number of intestinal parasites of which the sheep is host, space does not permit of a description of their life eyclesbeiug gl The eggs and larva,of the parasites are very resistant to external influences Jt has been determined by research that the larve of the round worms ot sheep will live in water for up to five months, at freezing temperature for months, in the droppings and in the soil for 18 months and probably longer. WARM WEATHER DANGEROUS. Usually the greatest trouble from worms is experienced during warm, moist weather, as under such conditions the eggs hatch out in a few hours, then, after undergoing further stages of development occupying from two to three days to a week or more, according to the temperature; the worm is ready to continue, its evolution in the sheep. Worms are often very troublesome dining a dry time. In- such a season, when , the food is-dry, loss of condition is often naturally attributed to the condition o the feed, worms not being suspected until the sheep are in an. advanced stage ot infestation. ~ , ~ . . Naturally it will be asked, if moisture and warmth are essential to the hatching of the worm eggs, how can they hatch during a dry period? When worms are hatching during a dry period it may be noticed that there are fairly heavy dews. Such dews supply the necessary moisture. INFECTED DRINKING WATER. Again, the drinking water will often' be found to be a focus of infection. Surface water, particularly dams, tanks, lagoons, springs, and stagnant creeks are likely to become polluted by the droppings. The droppings of sheep deposited even at some distance from the water supply may, during rain, be washed down into and around it. The eggs contained in the droppings are then in a position where the necessary moisture is available. Around many watering places there is usually a green pick, and in a dry tune sheep will hang round and feed over and over the area, picking up the infective larva) and depositing more and more eggs with their droppings. •.,,,,■ ~ It must also be remembered that as the larvaj will live in "water for several months, as long as they are there the sheep are likely to become infested. 1 Larva; have also been recovered from troughing, the eggs having been blown in with the dust and hatched on the damp sides of the trough just above the water Surface watering places should be fenced off to prevent the sheep from drinking therefrom, and the water either siphoned or pumped into troughing, winch should be thoroughly cleaned at regular intervals. It is also advisable to treat all lowlying, swampy ground, stagnant water holes and springs, also the vegetation for some distance round with bluestone or lime. MOST EFFECTIVE REMEDY. Though such precautions may be taken, together with other recommendations, such as the changing of stock from sheep to cattle and cattle to horses, and even spelling the paddocks from sheep for months or even a year, no method is so

effective as the one that deals with the parasites in their breeding place and prevents them from perpetuating their species by the laying of countless millions of eggs, which are eventually scattered all over the pastures by the movements of the sheep. The majority of -worms infesting sheep breed in the intestinal tract, and it is here that they should be attacked. Of the methods for combating intestinal parasites the most logical is the one that destroys the source of the eggs, the parasite itself. It is much easier to deal with the parasites while in the intestinal tract than to attempt to destroy millions of miscroscopic eggs scattered all over a paddock or paddocks. For destroying the parasites in the intestinal tract the most efficient weapon is an anthelmintic, which should be administered indivfdually in measured doses. Mass treatment by means of drugs incorporated in licks? should be avoided, aa by this method control of the amount of the drug taken cannot be exercised, the result being that some sheep receive too large a dose, others too small a dose, while some others receive none at all. ]n the treatment of worms that inhabit the fourth stomach and small ami large intestines, drugs that are absorbed as little as possible by the intestinal cell tissue, such as tetrachlorethylene, should be selected, thus ensuring a maximum of contact with the worms and a minimum of effect on the sheep. TREATMENT WITH DRUGS.

In the treatment of extra intestinal parasites, such as-liver flukes, drugs which are readily absorbed, such as carbon tetrachloride, and which are relatively much more toxic to the parasites than to the sheep should be selected. For a number of years sheep owners have been treating stomach worm infestations with various preparations, such as drenches containing arsenic and arsenic compounds, copper sulphate,'either in a one per cent, solution or in conjunction with mustard, arsenic, or tobacco. Tobacco infusions and tobacco licks have also been used. Many proprietary preparations, including drenches, powders, .pills, and lick preparations have been employed, all with varying results, leaviug much to be desired, and falling short of the ideal anthelmintic. A USEFUL SPECIFIC. During the past three years tetrachloicthyiene has been extensively used for the treatment of stomach and intestinal worms of sheep in Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, and America, and the results have shown this drug to ba considerably more efficacious against stomach worms and the blood-euckiug trichostrongyles inhabiting the small in.testino than any other drug or combination of drugs that have been used. It appears to De the only drug that will efficiently deal .with the nodular worm, Oesophagostomum columbianum. It has been found that it has little, if any, action against tape worms or liver flukes. It should, not,'therefore, be used in cases of infestation by these parasites, for which there are much more efficient drugs available. Many sheep earners appear to confuse tetrachlorethylene with carbon tetrachloride. This is unfortunate, as the two drugs are entirely different in their action, solubility and manner of excretion and are absorbed to different degrees. Carbon tetrachloride is rapidly absorbed from the intestinal tract and carried to the liver, hence its high degree of efficiency 'against liver fluke. If carbon tetrachloride is frequently administered it produces a degenerative effect upon the liver tissue, and may seriously disturb the functions of this very important organ. Carbon tetrachloride may prove toxic, and cause the death of sheep when administered to animals suffering from calcium deficiency. Tetrachlorethylene, on the other hand, has a solubility of only one in 10,000, and is hardly, if at all, absorbed from the intestinal tract, but passes along the tract and is not short-circuited to the liver, hence its high degree of efficiency against worms inhabiting the intestinal tract, and its low degree against liv.er fluke. Tetrachlorethylene has been experimentally administered to sheep in large doses at weekly intervals for a period of 12 months. During the whole of this period the sheep remained perfectly healthy, and showed no ill-effects of the repeated treatment. At the end of the year a number of the test animals were slaughtered and examined. Nothing was detected in the internal organs which indicated that harmful results had followed the repeated use of tetrachlorethylene. MILK-MARKETING SCHEME MANUFACTURERS' DOMINATION PRODUCERS' VIEWPOINT Criticism of the British milk marketing scheme is to be found in the N.F.U. Record, the official organ of the National Farmers' Union. In the editorial columns it is pointed out that the scheme was never intended to operate as a milk distributive trade and milk manufacturer. "But," the writer adds, "that is what it will degenerate into unless the Milk Marketing Board assume at the earliest possible opportunity firm control of the scheme which they were charged to administer." The Milk Marketing Board are advised to obtain as firm control at once by organising on lines that will enable them to take from the distributors their control of manufacturing outlets. "Registered producers," says the Record, " will want to know whether it is the policy of the Milk Marketing Board to establish its own manufacturing plant, in order that the inimical domination of the manufacturing interests may be brought to a speedy end." The Record concludes its review of an award from which "producer and consumer alike will suffer" with the statement: "The whole position is intolerable, and must be altered without avoidable waste of time. It is up to every country branch of the union to give its support to the Milk and Dairy Produce Committee at headquarters, in the efforts which must be made to assist the Milk Marketing Board to that end." ABERDEEN-ANGUS CATTLE BULLS FOR NEW ZEALAND To suply an order for the New Zealand herd of Messrs Herrick Bros, there has been selected by Mr Alexander Bisset, Bywell Home Farm, the three-year-old Aberdeen-Angus bull Jerdin Eric. As his name indicates, this is a member of Mr J. E. Kerr's famous family of Juana Ericas. The bull was bred at Harvicstouu, where lie was calved on January 18, 1931. As a yearling he was acquired by Mr J. 11. Pattullo, Pitskelly, Carnoustie, by whom he was exhibited twice —at the Angus Show as a yearling, and at the Dundee Highland Show last year. On both occasions he stood second, but those who have seen him recently are agreed that he has developed into one of the best bulls in the country. Jerdin Eric has for sire another Juana Erica bull, Jipsly Eric, which was champion at the Highland and Agricultural Show in 1929, and which is a son of Enthraller of Lethen and Jessamina Erica. The dam of Jerdin Eric is Jeka Erica, whose many showyard successes included the Highland championship as a cow, and she is by the 2800-guine'a sire Euripus of Ballindalloch, while the granddam is by Jason of Ballindalloch. so well-known as one of the great stock bulls in the Harviestoun herd.

Both from individual merit and from the lines upon which he is bred, Jerdin Erie is an outstanding specimen of the Aberdeen-Angus breed.

At the same time there will be shipped for Mr John. Ogilvy (Masterton) the yearling Aherndeen-Angus bull, Bachelor of Derculich, which won second prize at the recent Perth Show and sale. .

Bred by Mr R. Wemyes Honeyman of Derculich. Strathtay, he is of the Miss Burgess family, being a son of Beauty of Derculich, a daughter of Sir Leonard Brassey's great show cow, Barakalla. which was breed champion at the Royal Agricultural Society's show. Bachelor of Derculich is by the 500-guinea sire Ebor, of Candacraig, which was also second in his day at the Perth show and sale, whose sire was the 1400-guinea reserve champion at Perth, Prince of Salonica, and whose dam was by the Perth champion, Prince Powerful of Harviestoun, which cost 2800 guineas. The grandsire is Evolum of Ballindalloch, a son of the noted Jorum of Ballindalloch, and one of the champion group at Aberdeen. Bachelor of Derculich is accordingly bred on very select lines, besides being himself a show bull.