PALATABLE FOOD AND STOCK.

Otago Witness, Issue 3336, 20 February 1918, Page 8

PALATABLE FOOD AND STOCK.

Of course, one would expect that the use of palatable foodstuffs and good water would make for economy in the well-doing of stock, whether in tlie matter of laying on of flesh, of fattening animals, or. as affecting the yield of milking cows. Yet how little attention after nil is given to this phase of making the most of the opportunities available on many farms, of providing —or perhaps we should eay feed-

ing off—crops at just the right stage of growth. It is practically sale to say that" there is not the variety or the relish in the stock feed of many farms as in former years. Why is it? Possibly there is not the variety of plants growing on the farm, and it is certain that animals do at times display to us queer likes and dislikes. In the Victorian Journal of Agriculture the Daiiy Supervisor writes under the caption "Instinctive Choice of Food and Water by Stock," and instances examples brought under his notice of improvement after radical changes have been effected to the pasture. He says, inter alia: "It Is remarkable how cattle will seek special substances which their systems need owing to defects in the food supply. Top-dress a part of a field where and paralysis are prevalent, and then observe the fondness of the stock for the treated portion. In country where long-continued stocking has caused exhaustion of the soil, hone-chewing by cattle is quite a usual thing. How do' the animals know that the bone contains phosphoric acid - and lime? They cannot be seeking for fat, as any bone at all is chewed, and bone ashes will be eaten with avidity if placed within their reach, and will produce a very marked improvement in their health. The eating of dead rabbits by cows—so common in some districts—is an undoubted sign of a lack of minerals in the herbage. . "It is surprising to note, in some districts where bores or wells have been put down, that cat.tle will refuse to drink the water in dams supplied by surface catchment when they have tasted the supply from under ground. Near jL'enehurst there is a farm which has a large, clean dam, which was cut off by the railway line from a portion of the paddock, and for the waterless part a well was sunk and a hand-pump erected- The owner, an aged man, desirous of avoiding unnecessary pumping, sometimes drives the cows to the dam to induce them to drink from it, but without success, and they will wait for hours for an opportunity to go to the trough for the mineral water, which has markedly improved their condition. On another farm not far away the water supply is from a bore, and the water, though mineralised, evidently does not contain enough lime, as the cows eagerly lick the limewash off the cowshed.

"Frequently I have been informed of cows eating rabbit droppings. The explanation of this is that the animals are* seeking phosphoric acid—a substance in which the excreta of rabbits is usually rich, as a result of their feeding on the best grass and roots." In this connection it may be pointed out that the benefits from licks of salt, etc., are not half appreciated. We perhaps do' not witness these bone-chewing performances quite so frequently as in the Commonwealth, but it is common enough; and the continual removal of fat sheep, milk products, etc., naturally points to a depletion of the mineral constituents of the soil, which must be countered by fertilising in some common-sense manner if we are to export foodstuffs, commensurate with the capacity of the lands of the Dominion under modern methods. Failure to realise what invariably happens by continual calling on the land to yield of its wealth, its fertilising constituents, spells run-out soils, necessitating a long course ctf profitless nursing and expensive treatment later on by some unfortunate settler. Certainly these are not ordinary times, and the recognised farm rotations may for the nonce have to be discarded; but --the idea that lands devoid, for example, of plants" of the leguminosse order and sparsely grassed, will recuperate themselves in the "resting" process is too far-fetched for moderns. Rather should there be top-dressing of some sort to stimulate plant growth and maintain soil fertility. When animals exhibit an undue desire for bones, etc., something may well be provided —say a "lick" made up in the proportion of salt 201 b, bonemeal 101 b, sulphate of from 6oz. Mix well, and keep away from the weather as much as possible.