A NECESSITY

Waipawa Mail, Volume XLIX, Issue 152, 14 September 1928, Page 1 (Supplement)

A NECESSITY

POTASH FOR STOCK The following summary of conclu sions arrived at by the Rowatt Re search Institute and published in the Pastoralists’ Review, will be of inter est to readers: — “That the utilisation of pasture by stock is dependent on a correct balance between nutrients and mineral salts. “That we have upset the balance of nature by compelling our stock to produce more meat, more milk, and mo r « wool, neglecting to furnish them will) a ration which will enable them to do so without exhausting the mineral ele ments of their constitutions. Wo have changed the animals requirements from a food standpoint, and have generally overlooked this. Consequently, we find ourselves up against maDy, rightly called deficiency diseases, and the invasion of numerous parasites. This if undoubtedly the result of a disturbed mineral balance or a mineral deficient In no other way can we explain the rapid increase of deficiency disease*, such as sterility, contagious abortion, white scours, etc. “For many years w e have suffered from a serious mortality in lambs, especially about the time when they com me nee to feed on the vegetation. Often the (b aths have been 20 to 30 per eon* ThL is caused through the milk of the ewes being too rich in butter fat, and deficient in mineral salts, and the lambs are quite ineapable of digesting it. “A dressing of lewt. to 2cwt. per aero of potash salts (30 per cent, pur" potash ) given oree every two or three years will restore the deficient miner al salts so neeessary to the stock and the result will be more than gratifying Manv successful farmers in New Zea If'n.l to-riav have already proved thU and ar.* r.ow using potash regularly.