SHEEP IN WINTER

Wanganui Chronicle, Volume 75, Issue 118, 21 May 1932, Page 8 (Supplement)

SHEEP IN WINTER

MAINTAINING LIVE WEIGHT PROBLEMS DURING THREE CRITICAL MONTHS MERITS OF PELLET AND RICH FEEDING

I The maintenance of live weight i of June, July and August represent I lems which confront the flock-mas New Zealand sheep country is usual and, in many cases, removed far ini rigours of wind, snow and rain. Wit are forced to go further afield to oh a< this time consists of older herbag tity and quality. ‘The advantages o these mouths are manifest, and are s I chemist, and Mr. J. Lyons, director o i partnient of agriculture, in an a I its of pellet and lick feeding in the c i culture.

i n sheep during the critical months t s one of the most perplexing prob- ■■ ter throughout the year. Typical I ly hundreds of feet above sea level 1 and, being generally subject to the t h a cessation of growth the sheep > tain their food requirements, which ; e deficient in respect of both quan- > f supplementary feeding during s tressed by ' r. B. C. Aston, chief i f the live stock division of the dei rticle concerning the respective mer- : urrent issue of the Journal of Agri-

I “During this period,’’ they say. “the animal probably cannot obtain the 31b. of dry matter a day which is held to bo 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 livo partly on the body reserve which have been stored up during the periods of plenty—spring, summer and autumn.' Several pounds of live weight are therefore lost in tho 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 shonp is quite possible, hut the large outlay in cash is a. decided objection in this period of low returns to the farmer. ’ ’ Feeding Compound Pellets. Pellet-feeding is described as a method of feeding automatically both concentrated meal foods and mineral foods to sheep in one operatic ’, without the need for special troughs or the necessity for rounding up the sheep to feed them. The meal foods—ground linseed, coconut (copra) from which the excess of oil has boon removed, and poatneal (and there is no reason why fish or meatmeal should not also he used) —are primarily designed to make tho mineral part of the supplement attractive to sheep so that when the animal has learnt to eat tho pellet" it may continue to do so, the attraction being maintained by the nutrient meals added. These contain energy and fat-producing foods with a high degree of digestibility, and therefore in feeding mineral foods by this method the effect of the non-minoral concentrated foods, or tho 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 Io secure a proper absorption of minerals the technique of the method, the writers suggest, requires to be studied. It should also he borne in mind that the market prices obtained by shoepfarmers at present hardly warrant the expenditure of £ls a ton on supplementary food of which a single sheep may eat several ounces per day. Assuming that they are given pellets which cost 3ld per shri’p weekly for the three months of winter it would cost 3s Gd for each sheep, but this could hardly bo considered a practicable proceeding in tho light of the present price of wool. The experience in Scotland by those who use this method is that pellefs. when properly made, can be scattered on the ground, and the sheep have acquired such a liking for them that immediately the attendant appears in sight the-•muster themselves from tho surrounding hills in an endeavour to obtain more than their share; but byscattering pellets judiciously on the ground the average consumption may be equal for all members of the flock. This experience has been duplicated in Now Zealand. Value of Salt Licks. The giving of salt licks to slock, they continue, is an admirable method of feeding minerals. The principal is that common salt, which is palatable and sought, after by most grazing 1 stock, is a substance of undoubted i value in maintaining the thriftincss or

health of all vegetable-feeding animals. ! The other minerals required are apparently not so attractive as common salt, and not oaten to the same regular exI tent as the salt put before them. It i has therefore become the practice to I mix any mineral required with r large quantity of coarse or fine agricultural | salt and feed it as a powder lick, or alI ternatively to put it out in the pad- ■ docks after pressing the ingredients into a brick or block in order to minimise the wastage by rain. Both methods arc extensively practised. I the case of the powder lick it is necessary to have some box or trough protected from the weather, from which receptacle 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 bo tasted by the animals. and which are equally necessary, but are used in very much smaller quantities, are also mixed in with the salt lick. These are iodine, administered as potassium iodide, magnesium sulphate (Epsom salts), 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 region that it is undesirable to mix soluble iron salts in the lick for sheep. The particular soluble salt used was the double iron and ainmonium citrate. Many formulae have been published, in which the use of ferrous sulphate is advocated, but how far this is attractive or nauseous to sheep has yet to be determined. The experiment with the double citrate certain;v 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 bo more efficacious to administer the material to each animal as a bolus or drench. When iron is ro- ■ quired 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 estabi lished as a practice there is no wastage duo to weather and no expense is incurred i» providing troughs for feeding,” conclude the writers. The salt powder lick is necessary at present when phosphates are used, as although much time and money has been spent by variou.* organisations and by the department of agriculture in endeavour ing to make a brick or block with phosphates 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 feeding box is, ot course, necessary. “Block or brick Licks of various siz» can easily be made where phosphates are absent from the mixture. These can be hung up to fences when | small in size by means of a wire staple ilet into the brink, or may simply be thrown on the ground, the salt being so little soluble in block form that the from weathe* is negligible.”