SHEEP IN WINTER

Waipa Post, Volume 44, Issue 3182, 26 May 1932, Page 3

SHEEP IN WINTER

MAINTAINING LIVE WEIGHT. PROBLEMS DURING THREE CRITICAL MONTHS. MERITS OF PELLET AND RICH FEEDING. The disappearance of live weight in sheep during the critical months of June, July, and August represent one of the most perplexing problems that confront the flockmaster throughout the year. Typical New Zealand sheep country is usually hundreds of feet above sea level, and, in many cases, removed far inland, being generally subject to the rigours of wind, snow, and rain. With a cessation of growth the sheep are forced to go further afield to obtain their food requirements, which at this time consist of older herbage deficient in respect of both quantity and quality. The advantages of supplementary feeding during those months are manifest, and are stressed by Mr B. C. Aston, chief chemist, and Mr J. Lyons, director of the live stock division of the Department of Agriculture, in an article concerning the respective merits of pellet and lick feeding in the current issue of the Journal of Agriculture.

" During this period,'" they say, "the animal probably cannot obtain the 3 lbs of dry matter a day which is held to be the normal requirement of each fully-grown sheep, and much of the fodder it is lucky enough to get then is deficient in mineral matter. It is then that the animal is compelled to live partly on the body reserves which have been stored up during the periods of plenty—spring, summer, and autumn. Several pounds of live weight are therefore lost in the months of June, July, and August in those sheep which continue on pasture without the aid of supplementary feeding, which on many runs is not practicable to grow. The feeding of concentrated meal foods to sheep is quite possible, but the large outlay in cash is a decided objection in this period of low returns to the sheepowner."

FEEDING COMPOUND PELLETS. Pellet feeding is described as a method of feeding automatically both concentrated meal foods and mineral foods to sheep in one operation, without the need for special troughs or the necessity for rounding up the sheep to feed them. The me#l foodsground linseed, coconut (copra) from which the excess of oil has been removed, and peameal (and there is no reason why fish or should not also be used)—are primarily designed to make the mineral part of the supplement attractive to sheep, so that when the animal has learnt to eat the pellet it may continue to do so, the attraction being maintained by the nutrient meals added. These contain energy and fai-producmg foods with a high degree of digestibility, and therelore in feeding mineral foods by this method the effect of the non-mineral concenicated foods, or the possible effect of suddenly stopping the use of such foods, may be overlooked.

When compound pellets are fed to sheep in greater quantities than the bare amount necessary to secure a proper absorption oil minerals, the technique of the method, the writers suggest, requires to be studied. It should also be Dome in mind that the market prices obtained by sheep-farm-ers at present hardly warrant the expenditure of £ls a ton on supplementary food, of which a single sheep may eat several ounces a day. Assuming that they are given pellets which cost did per sheep weekly for the three months of winter, it would cost 3s 6d for each sheep, but this could hardly be considered a practicable proceeding in the light of the present price of wool. The experience in Scotland by those who use this method is that pellets, when properly made, can be scattered on the ground and the sheep have acquired such a liking for them chat immediately the attendant appears in sight they muster themselves from the surrounding hills in an endeavour to obtain more than their share; but by scattering the pellets judiciously on the ground the average consumption may be equal for all members of the flock. This experience has been duplicated in New Zealand. VALUE OF SALT LICKS. The giving of salt licks to stock, the writers continue, is an admirable method of feeding minerals. The principle is that common salt, which is palatable and sougnt after by most grazing stock, is a substance of an undoubted value in maintaining the thriftiness or health of all vegetablefeeding animals. The other minerals required are apparently not so attractive as common salt, and not eaten to 1 the same regular extent as the salt put before them. It has therefore become the practice to mix any mineral required with a large quantity of coarse or fine agricultural salt and Heed it as a powder lick, or alternatively to put it out in the paddock after pressing the ingredients into a

brick or block in order to minimise the wastage by rain. Both methods are extensively practised. In the case of the powder lick it is necessary to have some box or trough protected from teh weather, from which recepeacle the lick may be fed. In this way such substances (presumed to be tasteless to animals as they are to human beings) as calcium phosphate, calcium carbonate, iron carbonate, iron oxide, charcoal, and sulphur, are given mixed with salt. Some other mineral foods which are soluble and therefore presumably can be tasted by the animals, and which are equally necessary but are used in very much smaller quantities, are also mixed with the salt lick. These aire iodine, administered as potassium iodide, magnesium sulhphate Epsom salts), and sodium sulphate (Glauber salts). These, presumably, are not repulsive to the animal, although magnesium salts have a bitter taste to human beings. USE OF IRON SALTS. It has been found in the cases of the bush-sickness reg-ion that it is undesirable to mix soluble iron salts in the lick for sheep. The particular soluble salt used was the double iron and ammonium citrate. Many formulae have been published, in which the use of ferrous sulphate is advocated, but how far this is attractive oir nauseous to sheep has yet to be determined. The experiment with the double citrate certainly indicates that the taste might prevent sheep taking it. The iron sulphate, however, is useful perhaps in combating parasites, but for this purpose it would be more efficacious to administer the material to each animal as a bolus or drench. When iron is required in a lick as food-iron for continuous use it would be preferable to use finely-ground limonite (hydrated oxide of iron) instead of the iron sulphate. " The pellet method of feeding is comparatively costly, requiring some patience to inaugurate on a run owing to the time taken to teach the animals to take the pellets; but when established as a practice there is no wastage due to weather and no expense is incurred in providing troughs for feeding," conclude the writers. The salt powder lick is necessary at present when phosphates a;re used, as although much time and money has been spent by various organisations and by the Department of Agriculture in endeavouring to make a brick or a block, with phosphate which would stand up to transport and keep its shape in the field, this has not been achieved. In using a powder lick a trough or a feeding box is, of course, necessary. Block or brick licks of various sizes can easily be made where prosphates are absent from the mixture. These can be hung up to fences when small in size by means of a wire staple let into the brick, or may simply be thrown on the ground, the salt being so little soluble in block form that the loss from weather is negligible.