LIVE STOCK. THE FARM

Southland Times, Issue 21832, 8 October 1932, Page 14

LIVE STOCK. THE FARM

ON THE LAND NOTES FOR THE WEEK (By Working Farmer.) Lambing is still progressing satisfactorily, but the continued dry weather is hard on the ewes and a bit of assistance has *0 be given more frequently during a dry windy spell. Udder trouble, which seems to be a form of mammitis, has been giving bother. With a dairy cow one can rub with turpentine or some other preparation. With a ewe it might be practicable where only a few are kept, but when the flock runs into hundreds they have to take their chance. About all that one can do is to mark them so that they may be culled and fattened after shearing.

Pulpy Kidney is due any time now and it is advisable to exercise the flock gently when going round morning and evening. Exercise is an aid to digestion and by keeping the organs functioning losses may be averted. Hunting them roughly or starving them on a bare raddock is liable to cause greater loss than the trouble itself if the lambs are designed for the freezer. On the dairy farm, this month is a good time to dehorn any spikers. One or two in a herd can keep the whole yard in a ferment. As soon as there is a plentiful supnly of grass and the cows have sufficiently recovered after calving, the operation does not give them much of a set-back and the peace which reigns afterwards will more than compensate for any loss. The proper time to dehorn is when calves are about two weeks old, and the operation is so simple that it is a wonder it is not universally practised. All that is required is a caustic pencil, a pair of scissors and a drop of water. Lay the calf on its side, clip the hair of the button and rub the scale off the top with the scissors blade. Then wet the end of the caustic stick and rub the button till it shows slightly red. A piece of paper should be wrapped round the caustic to protect the finfers. One hears of proposed legislation to license bulls, rams, stallions, etc., and no doubt there is room for improvement in each of these lines but there should certainly be an act passed to make the dehorning of calves compulsory. In sale yards, railway trucks, farm yards or wherever horned cattle are, there is always turmoil. Even in purebred herds, where it is claimed that horns lend individuality to the animal, we could do quite well without the horns. The Polled Shorthorns which were exhibited at the Southland A. and P. Show a few years ago left very little to be desired and the fact that a breed of Polled Herefords has been evolved would seem to indicate that they, too, can do without horns. In the dairy breeds of purebred. cattle there are so many other points to be judged that a fairly accurate decision could be given even if the horns were missing. The Royal Society could give a lead in this respect, but the members are mostly stud breeders who are wed to their idols and the chances are that a suggestion of this nature would be regarded as rank heresy. It may be claimed that the dehorning of run calves would be a tricky business, but a dab with a hot iron is just as effective as the caustic and this could be done at marking time without much additional trouble. Preparing for Grass Sowing.

To establish a good permanent pasture the land should be well consolidated before the grass-seed is sown. The proof of this statement may be found where the land is tramped at gateways or where heavy traffic has crossed a paddock, as these parts will remain green after the pasture on the rest of the paddock has run to fog, etc. If land which has been under turnips is intended to be sown down it should be disced before ploughing and the plough set fairly shallow. The discing breaks the crust and this helps, to avoid openness under the top soil; indeed where discing has been done while the land was moist, enough to allow even penetration by the discs, it can be worked quite well enough for grass sowing without the need of ploughing. The advantage of using the discs or cultivator is that either of these implements go a little deeper with each additional stroke and all the loose land is thoroughly worked and can easily be consolidated by rolling. When working the land a stroke of tripod or chain harrows after each double cut of the discs is a great help in preparing a fine seed bed besides levelling the surface of the ground. A paddock which has liad insufficient harrowing shows the marks of the discs for years after it has been sown down, particularly if in-cut discs have been used, and these are a source of annoyance when top-dressing is being done or when sheep have to be kent off their backs. It is advisable to roll the land before sowing the grass, as otherwise a lot of the small seeds are buried too deep. The grass seed box attached to the back of. the roller is one of the most economical and most satisfactory ways of sowing grass. A light chain harrow not more than 3ft. deep can also be pulled behind the roller and the whole job done at one operation, but it pays to roll the ground a second time for the sake of getting it good and firm. Sowing manure with grass seed is not practised to the extent it should be and if 15 to 20cwt. of lime and one sack of super per acre is given, it only adds about 25/- per acre to the cost and is much more than regained in the first year and a half of the pasture, besides giving the grass a start for permanency which makes it a suitable sward for future top-dressing. Farmers would not think of sewing turnips without manure because they know that nothing worth while would grow, but because grass will do, in a way, they grudge the expense. If one has any doubts as to the advantage of manuring grass they should sow a strip of manure across the paddock and note the result,

Sheep Dips. There are always a few new dipping preparations being placed on the market and some of them may be quite all right. Dipping is a strenuous job and one which few sheep-farmers would be sorry to avoid, but there is so much at stake through possible damage to the sheep and the risk that insufficient damage may result to the parasites that

the wise farmer will superintend the job himself. Sheep dips may cost more than their actual value as chemicals and there may be room for reduction in the price, but even at present prices the cost runs out at approximately Id. per sheep and it is doubtful wisdom to experiment with untried substitutes for the sake of saving a few shillings. Tractor and Horse.

On all hands the cry is “back to the horse” and no doubt with wool and lamb at present low prices farmers will revert to a certain extent to cropping as a means of helping to balance the budget. This will mean more cultivation and naturally more pulling power. Whether it will be horses or tractors that will get the job remains to be seen. A contemporary asserts that of the tractors which were in use 10 to 12 years ago 75 per cent, are now on the scrap heap or back in the garage. Probably so, what with use and abuse tractors will not last for ever. If a tally could be taken of all the horses that were looking through a collar 10 or 12 years ago it would be found that a good many of them now sleep with their fathers and those that are still to the fore are getting past their best. Tractors and horses have a lot in common: they both require suitable fuel and careful treatment The horse has one advantage) in being more fool proof, because he will stand up to more ill-treatment and mismanage—ent without refusing to go. That there are some men who should never be allowed on a tractor is just as certain as that there are some men who should never be allowed to own or work a horse. It is claimed for the horse that it produces its own food, but it may be claimed for the tractor that if the pastures the horse grazes on were turned into butterfat and the chaff sold there would be more than enough cash brought in to buy the fuel. The tractor feeds while working, the horse while idle, and on the average farm, as regards cultivation, there is much more idle time than working time when spread over the whole year. For the small farmer who has to milk cows or attend to sheep the tractor has an advantage because it is already yoked to the implement and a spare hour can be taken advantage of to push on the work. Economies.

The cutting down of needful expenditure seldom proves an economy in the long run, but there is a tendency to drift into increased expenditure which may appear to be needful but which, if adopted by the heads of each department'in a large institution, such as our Public Service, may in the aggregate, create a burden beyond the carrying capacity of our small country. The figures presented by the Economy Commission as showing the huge increase in public expenditure during the past few years are alarming and their advice to use the pruning knife must be heeded. No doubt every department affected will resent the idea of curtailment and strong representations will be made to members of Parliament and in other ways as a protest. The fertilizer subsidy and free carriage of lime on the railways are mentioned in the report and these measures not only affect the farming community, but, indirectly, the country as a whole. The country’s prosperity depends entirely on a favourable trade balance. When prices are low the only way to keep income above expenditure is by increased volume of exports and a limiting control on imports. Anyone who has had experience in primary n coduction must know that any increase will only come by the anplication of lime and fertilizers in adequate quantities. Even with the fertilizer subsidy and free carriage of lime there is still only a very limited area of Southland producing within 50 per cent, of what it could be made to produce had the farmers working the land sufficient money to take full advantage of these is not so much a case of being poor is not so much a case of being poor farmers as being hard-up farmers which keeps them poor. The suggestion by the commission that any farmer not procuring lime from the nearest works should be made to pay rail on any further distance which the lime has to be carried seems very fair, because when one has a prejudice or preference he should be,made to pay for it, especially at a time of economic stress like the present. If a ballot were taken as to the desirability or otherwise of the wheat subsidy it would be wiped out by a huge majority.

Pressing Hay. A method of preserving hay which is coming into favour rapidly and which has much to recommend it is by means of pressing it direct from the paddock and cutting out the expense and labour of stacking. So far as the length of time for ripening or drying is concerned hay may be pressed before it is fit for putting into a large stack. In fine weather, unless the hay crop is very green and heavy, two days will be found quite sufficient time for drying. When the hay is pressed it may be stored in a shed or carted and stacked where it is later to be fed off. This is a decided advantage because the carting is done in dry weather and does not cut up paddocks and gateways as it would later on. Again, in winter feeding, one man with a horse and dray can comfortably feed stock in any kind of weather where with stacked hay in windy weather it is hard work for two men and the loss through blowing away is also considerable. It is also much easier to gauge the requirements of the stock when feeding pressed hay. On the Titipua property of Sir William Hunt the hay has all been pressed for the past two seasons and losses through tramping underfoot have been very light. The manager, Mr Ritchie, has arranged a novel way of feeuing by standing a bale on end and driving four stakes—one on each side —into the ground, much on the principale of the colonial candlestick which consisted of four nails and a piece of board. A hay press will put through about two tons per hour at a cost for pressing of 4/- or 5/- per ton and this cost is more than offset by the uniform quality and the saving in time and hay when feeding out. In a fair crop two sweeps will keep the press going and the farmer has to find about five men additional to the two men with the press. When it is realized that a large percentage of the feeding value of hay is in the leafage it can be seen that the less handling there is, the loss will also be lessened.

Cambridge Horse Fair. A keen demand for horses suitable for farm work is being experienced in the North Island and at a horse fair held in Cambridge recently some 600 horses changed hands. The fair lasted four days and a relay of auctioneers kept the sale going continually from 10 a.m. till 4 p.m. The reason of this sudden demand is that many farmers who depended solely on pastures, hay and ensilage for their dairy herds are beginning to find that it is a difficult business to bring their cows through the winter in satisfactory condition. One writer says: “There can be no two opinions about the general condition of the milking herds in the Auckland province at the commencement of the present milking season; the general condition is poor and that expresses the position very mildly. For every one that has brought his herd through in good condition, one hundred have failed to do so.” Horses have been in keen demand in Southland and unless the breeding of horses is kept up there will assuredly be a shortage. Farmers who intend breeding from some of their mares will soon be selecting a sire and on their selection will depend the kind of team they will own in a few years’ time. By breeding from the best you do not always get the fulfilment of your desire, but by breeding from inferior stock it is almost a dead certainty that the result will be poor type of progeny. Apart from type it is almost certain that the nature of the mare will be reflected in the foal. A mare that is a jib or a puller, fiery or lazy, bad-tempered or kindly-natured will, in nearly every instance,. transmit that tendency to her offspring. In many teams where a farmer has been breeding replacements for a number of years any unshapeliness as to the legs or deficiencies in the body may be traced down the different generations.