USE OF COBALT

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 56, Issue 4055, 1 June 1938, Page 5

USE OF COBALT

SUCCESS IN TE AWAMUTU DISTRICT. ENCOURAGING RESULTS. Strikingly successful progress in one of the most important phases of agricultural research to be undertaken in the Auckland province suggests the possibility that thousands of acres of potential sheep country may be brought into infinitely more profitable production. The trials now proceeding have been based on the fact that a minute quantity of cobalt in the diet of livestock is of profound importance to their health and, if the success of the experiments is maintained, new hope is held out for the large tracts of land which at present show little or no return on account of the prevalence of diseases due to a deficiency of the cobalt element. Areas affected by the cobalt deficiency are widely spread over the North Island and one district which may be materially improved from the production standpoint if the research is successful in Arohena. EXPERIENCES OF A LOCAL FARMER. It is interesting and highly important to record that a highly satisfactory experience of cobalt has been gained by a farmer owning a property about 30 miles from Te Awamutu in country where it was almost impossible to raise sheep. On this particular soil type fat lambs were the exception rather than the rule. The pastures were treated with only a pound of cobalt to the acre in conjunction with superphosphate and a number of aged ewes were run on the treated land. Normally it would have been useless attempting to carry this type of sheep through, but, notwithstanding their age, the ewes did remarkably well and produced a high percentage of lambs, the proportion of losses being very small. Many of the wether lambs were sold as fats and. for the first time, ewe lambs were kept and successfully reared on the property. Here again, no attempt was made to control the pasture closely to a sheep feed stage and both the ewes and hoggets were running on the same paddocks throughout the season. The work was carried out at a cost of under 5s an acre. TREATMENT NOT EXPENSIVE. The cobalt, which is imported from England, is used in only small quantities and treatment does not prove expensive. There is only a little of the clement in a ton of cobaltised superphosphate, which costs £5 Is 6d, and, using lewt to the acre, the expense is only 5s an acre, the cobalt content alone costing only 1.5 d. It is pointed out, however, by authorities, that miraculous results cannot be expected on any type of soil and it is believed possible that cobalt may not prove effective in many districts. It will certainly not solve every farming- problem.