BUILD CONSTITUTION.

Waikato Times, Volume 104, Issue 17586, 15 December 1928, Page 22 (Supplement)

BUILD CONSTITUTION.

_ o, -_— TO PREVENT DISEASE. VETERINARIAN'S ADVICE. That mammitis amongst dairy cows in the Manawatu and adjacent districts is more prevalent this season, is the opinion that Mr R. 11. .Meade, Departmental veterinarian, of Palraerston North, expressed to a Manawatu Times reporter. There was no special reason for the greater number of cases reported. The simple fact was that the scourge was taking its toll, and apparently all the various endeavours being made to cure and prevent the disease had been of little use.

Mr Meade was very emphatic that farmers could do a great deal more than they were doing to help their herds resist attacks of all diseases by building up constitutions. The fact that cows called upon, every ounce of their strength and energy to produce milk was generally recognised by farmers to-day, and efforts to keep the animal in better condition were made in the direction of better pastures and top-dressing. There the matter should not be allowed to rest, however. His experience, as well as that of others, had been that splendid results could be obtained from the use of a lime preparation fed direct to the cow per medium of a dry mash or mixed with a palatable fodder such as bran. A compound that had functioned well in this respect, was precipitated calcium fed at the rate of a dessertspoonful twice a day. The powder could be mixed up with bran and fed in the bails during milking time, Mr Meade quoted instances of almost miraculous headway made by down and out animals after starting the calcium phosphate treatment. Much of the failure of cows to hold was the result of low constitution and there again the artificial feeding, if adopted, would effect a speedy cure. Talking of pigs, Mr Meade roundly condemned the practice of many farmers of rushing pigs to market as soon as it was discovered they were diseased or had something wrong with them. Peopje who did that should be open to prosecution with a heavy penalty, as it only meant that the disease was rapid--1 v disseminated about the country. Several instances of farmers having done this had come under his notice recently.