RAGWORT POISONING

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume LXXXIII, Issue 20168, 9 June 1928, Page 6

RAGWORT POISONING

FARMER’S HEAVY LOSS A WARNING TO OTHERS Mention was made in a recent issue of the “Chronicle” of heavy mortality of lambs in the Waverley district, the cause of death being more or less a mystery. A well-known farmer in this district has had a rather unenviable experience in connection with sheep. Interviewed by a “Chronicle” reporter, he mentioned having purchased at the sale yards a line of some 300 ewes in lamb, which had been trucked from the Manutahi district. On the short drive from the yards to the purchaser’s farm two ewes died on the road, and finding another six dead the following morning he immediately invoked the assistance of the stock inspector, Mr Cleland, and the Government veterinarian, Mr Thompson, both gentlemen stating that death was due to ragwort poisoning. The ewes continued dying, and up to the present time some 50 have been lost, while many of the remainder have every appearance of doing likewise.

The farmer in question desires to state that the auctioneers sold the sheep in absolutely good faith and ho cannot speak too highly of the treatment he received from the firm. At the same time he considers it only fair to his fellow farmers to warn them not to purchase sheep without some guarantee that they have not come off ragwort country. Many farmers do not, apparently, fully appreciate the danger of ragwort and it may be that only hard experience will awaken them.