FARM INTERESTS

Timaru Herald, Volume CXLVIII, Issue 21821, 26 November 1940, Page 3

FARM INTERESTS

POULTRY NOTES Care Of Young Pullets Selecting Stock Cockerels Leaving aside the question of the work involved, on a modern poultry farm at present there is much to delight and compensate the farmer, whose plant is running to schedule. The “new arrivals” have progressed another stage, and to them is being devoted the attention that is essential to thyir welfare. In this connection the farmer's wife plays no small part. While it is true that at each period when the chicks are being raised the poultryman’s skill is under test, it is just as true that his wife, by reason of her patience and sympathy, earns a tribute, too. Poultry-keeping demands the cultivation of such qualities. Enthusiasm is perhaps the main essential. That is why at this time of the year there is something almost sublime about the activities on a poultry-run. The sight of young chicks at their various stages of growth has a wider appeal than that of most commercial activities. Meantime, the routine is as exacting as ever and there is solid, hard work to be done. A gefod practice when raising chicks is to take the biggest ones out of the hatch. Kept by themselves, they will progress more rapidly still, while the smaller ones left to themselves will do better, too. It Is a maxim of successful chick-raising to rear broods in small numbers. Early-hatched broods of chicks require thinning out. When growing fast they soon overcrowd their quarters, and where that is allowed to happen they cease normal growth even If they do not contract disease. Contentment is a factor that contributes handsomely to successful poultry-keeping. A plentiful supply of green feed is essential, while leaving your fowls without shell-grit is the beginning of slackened egg production, the cause of which may be difficult to trace. Too early laying of pullets, and the laying of small sized eggs, are two. matters which should provide grave consideration for thought. Two signs of approaching laying are a bright red comb and an increased width between the pelvic bones. A golden rule when feeding wet mash is that there must never be any remains allowed to stand in the trough. As soon as the birds cease to eat heartily in, say, about twenty minutes to half an hour, the troughs should be removed and cleaned at once. It is much better to give two supplies of food rather than a large one, some of which may be left. By doing this it is easier to gauge the birds’ appetites. This point is particularly Important at the present time, when food is dear. When the mash is changed, the birds may not eat quite so much for a day or two, so all leavings must be removed until the normal appetites, return If stale wet mash is allowed to remain in front of the birds, it not only spoils their appetites, but any eaten has an injurious effect upon them. First selection of stock cockerels should be made at eight weeks of age, and the second at sixteeen weeks, for unless the culls are eliminated they are no use for the table either, and must be counted a dead loss. There are three main principles of selection: Constitutional vigour, production quality and standard breeding points. The first of these is best judged when the birds are running loose. Good cockerels will range freely and not huddle in a corner of the house. In a small flock—and stock birds should never be run in large units —it is quite easy to see which individuals are the active, bullying birds and which allow themselves to be browbeaten. These last will never be any use as sires. Production and standard breeding qualities are best judged, first, by very careful handling, though some of the most obvious faults can be seen without picking up the birds. The comb should have no side sprigs and the serrations should be even. With singlecomb types one occasionally gets a twisted comb, and a cockerel with this fault should never be used as a breeder. The base of the comb should always follow the curve of the skull and not stick out at the back. Eyes are a good guide both to general condition and correct breeding. Birds with split pupils, blind eyes or those sunk deep in the head should be culled. The good breeder will have bright, clear eyes, and only those birds which have correct coloured eyes for their breed should be used. There are three faulty types of tail in male birds; squirrel tails, where the tail curves back towards the cockerel’s neck; wry or crooked tails and down tails, where the feathers slope towards the ground.

BRITAIN’S FOOD Supply Sources Closed Opening For New Zealand German occupancy of Continental Countries has entirely closed up a source of food supply to England representing annually more than £77,000,000. The British newspapers are pointing out the great chance this has given to British farmers to increase theft- production. The advice can be applied to New Zealand production. An article in the latest issue of "The Farmer and Stockbreeder,” commenting on the position, says that nobody imagines that Britain can ever make up the whole of the gaps caused, but if farmers could replace only a small proportion of the products which are no longer reaching England there would be enough to keep every farmer, worker, and machine at top speed. Continental supplies of grain and flour were small—about 4 per cent of the total imports—but when bacon and dairy produce are considered it is realised how new large sources of supply must be found. Two-thirds of Great Britain’s bacon imports came from the Continent and more than half the poultry imports. Of butter imports 44 per cent came from Europe, and Denmark sent nearly 50 per cent of the imported milk and cream. Swiss supplies of these products and of cheese were presumably no longer available. The value in 1938 of the importations from occupied countries was as follows:

New Zealand Products The products that concern New Zealand directly may be separated from the mass:—

Grain and flour (including £ Soviet supplies) 6.836,782 Animal feeding stuffs .. . 601,919 Bacon, ham, poultry, etc. . 22,369,293 Dairy produce 34,371.472 Fruit and vegetables 8,454,463 Flax and hemp 4,450,343 £77.084,272

Total Closed Imports. Countries. 1,897.572 595,098 Bacon, etc., cwt. . 6,864,467 4,629,233 Butter, cwt. . 9,508,511 4,027,643 Cheese, cwt. 2,928,114 272,280 Milk powder, cwt.. 355,054 90,182 40,702 35,590 Hides, skins, cwt.. 741,658 154,074