WINTER FEED FOR SHEEP

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LV, Issue 17235, 15 April 1930, Page 9

WINTER FEED FOR SHEEP

CANTERBURY EXPERIENCE INTERESTING TRIALS OUTLINED Commentiug on tin 1 tendency to miiko limited provision for winter feed for sheep, especially tor bleeding ewes, a bulletin issued bv the Canterbury Chamber of Commerce states that the time is coming when the value of winter feed will be realised, and n was hoped that the material contained in the bulletin would enable a farmer lo decide wncther his present method ol winter feeding was the best for his conditions, or whether some other system could be adopted more profitably. After detailing the use and the costs of feeding chaff, hay, meat meal, green feed, and ensilage during j tin' winter, the bulletin states: “Although il has been assumed |that the average cost of winter feedling under intensive grazing is in the neighborhood of 11s per head, and that on this basis as much as (is per head can be spent under intensive conditions, we arc not in a position to say that 3s is the maximum amount that can be profitably spent on winter feeding. Information collected at Lincoln College during the last two years tends to show that the net returns improve as winter feeding costs arc increased up to (is per head.” Last winter, separate mobs of 50 ewes each were run on different feeds. In the spring their lambs were weighed and marked at birth, and weighed at various intervals afterwards. Further, the wool from each mob of ewes was separately weighed at shearing lime. The effect of different winter feedings on wool and lamb production for both old and young ewes' was that the better the ewes were fed in each case the greater the return from them. The cash returns for lambs were in direct, proportion to the daily live weight increase of the lambs, and this is turn was in direct proportion to their weight at birth. The influence of birth weights on rate of growth, investigated, >it was believed, for the first time for the purposes of the bulletin, was produced in table form. This showed that, the heavier a lamb is at birth the better it will thrive subsequently, and the sooner it will be lit to kill. The fact that well-fed ewes produce heavier lambs, means that the better the ewes are fed in winter the quicker their lambs will fatten during the summer.

“From the facts brought out/’ the bulletin adds, “it. is obvious that the winter feeding of the ewes is allimportant. in the production of wool and lamb.”