RAISING HOGGETS.

Waikato Times, Volume 112, Issue 18796, 18 November 1932, Page 3

RAISING HOGGETS.

ENORMOUS ANNUAL LOSS. THINGS TO BE GUARDED AQAINBT. LEANING most critical time. (From a leoture by Mr A. Hunter, of Hawera, at Massey Agricultural College.) The rearing of hoggets Is a subject of very great Importance. The annual loss through death Is enormous. The lambs docked in the years 192930 and 1930-31 averaged about 14,750,000, and assuming that 6,750,000 were slaughtered for export, the looal market and on the farms, there •would be 8.000,000 to rear. If the average loss for The Dominion Is 3 per cent.- —a conservative basis, for In this Island It is much higher, though it may be somewhat lower In the South Island —the total loss would be 240,000 lambs per annum. This loss is dearly one of the most serious problems the sheep farmer has to faoe. For the purpose of these remarks I will exclude as outside their scope '•y- iiie fattening lamb, the stud lamb, and that run by the dairy farmer amongst oowa. It must be remembered, too, that looality is of considerable moment, as are distance from the sea coast, height above sea level, the possibility of cultivation, the nature of the eoil and pasture, rainfall, exposure to winds and the variations of weather over different years. It is, therefore, not possible to lay down any rule that will suit all localities, nor even the same locality in different seasons. The sheep is an animal whose natural habitat Is dry, hilly or mountainous country. In New Zealand only those pastured on country such as runs up into the Southern Alps can truly bo said to be under natural conditions, and those grazed on rich, flat lands are farmed in an artificial manner.

To begin with, breeding Is of primary importance, as also is the care of the pregnant ewe. If a hill-coun-try farmer is buying 'hoggets to rear he would be well advised to choose those whose breeding has not mostly “gone down the mouth.” We will assume that the lambs are of a suitable breed for the locality, and that the ewes were mated and wintered in good, healthy condition. In passing it is -well to bear in mind that l'at sheep are not necessarily good-conditioned, nor good-constitutioned necessarily fat. We will further assume that the lambs were reasonably well managed up to weaning Lime. Lato Weaning Bad. Weaning is perhaps the most criti- • col period, for mistakes made then are often far-reaching, and on account of •the summer weather a failure to “do" as they should is not readily noticeable, except to the practised eye, and At is well for the owner to keep both \ppen. Generally speaking, it is advisable not to leave weaning too late. My experience lias been that late weaning is good for neither lamb nor ewe. From New Year to the middle of January suits our district, hut that is a matter that depends on local conditions. The management varies with locality. On flat lands there will as a rule be green crops or roots, perhaps both, and perhaps stubble, which is excellent for starting them off, for there should he no source of infection from parasites except in the case of a runoff on grass. The hill country man, who has to rely solely on grass, has a different problem. After he lias done with new burns his task is no easy one. If for any reason the grass is too dry, too washy or too abundant, he may have trouble. In dry. hot weather hoggets Beem to do better on shady sides, but If it is a wet season a sunny face suits better, and is indispensable through the winter. A supply of good, clear running water is of great value in dry, hot weather. Unfortunately this is not always available, and if lambs—or older sheep, for that matter—have to travel too far they lung around the water, the pasture becomes foul, and If the llow is scanty or Ihe ground marshy it becomes a serious source of lijtection from parasites. In ihe cooler weather tiieie is Usually sufficient moisture from dew.

and aooess to water is not neoessary at all, and as a rule they do better without It. Hoggets generally do well If they can be shifted frequently and given short, dean pasture; but one has known disastrous results under this treatment, and, on the other hand, the very best results by turning a mob of lambs into a paddock—fairly steep —and leaving them there until shearing, One, however, oan never safely assume that he has discovered the seoret of managing hoggets—at any rate, purely on grass. If one can run them thinly among cattle they usually thrive, but even then early frosts may prevent the growth of sufficient young grass; they are forced to eat too much of the older grass and indigestion follows. When grass is too washy, chaff Is a valuable help, but on most baok ‘country this is impossible, even if the owner could afford to pay for it in ordinary times. Bane of Panaeitos. •Parasites are the great bane of the hogget. I leave the external ones out, except to remark that there is no reasonable excuse for them. Neighbours are not all good Samaritans, and one hears of some farmers who are economising in these hard times by avoiding the expense of dip. The internal parasites are more difficult to detect, especially in the early stages of Infection, and also to deal with, and are responsible for the greater part of the losses. When once a hogget suffers a check through insufficient or Indigestible food it soon falls a prey to these pests. Their name is legion, but usually much longer. They are found In the bronchial tubes, the different stomachs, the intestines; some bore into the muscles, others enter theffilood stream and settle in various parts of the system. They propagate with great rapidity. Law states that a single tapeworm may produce 25,000,000 eggs—that has the White Leghorn done to a frazzle. Some of the more insignificant In size, If longer in name, are more deadly. Probably the lungworm—it lives and breeds in the lower part of the windpipe and the bronchial tubes—causes the heaviest losses. There was a serious epidemic about 1889, when lambs diod like flies, and I remember 3000 dying out of a flock of 4000. In 1929 there was also a visitation. These epidemics seem to come in cyoles. Probably we fight them for some years and get towards extermination, then wo slacken off and ne\v_ farmers know them not, and back oomes the enemy. I have seen a big, strong lamb begin to hang around a water trough, and in three or four days it was dead. It appears to me that in many ways the hogget is really smothered—the worms fill the tubes and with mucous prevent the passage of air. The chloroform-ether-turps mixture injected through the nostrils is very effective and rapid in action, and is easily administered by means of a nasal spray. I have seen a hogget oough up a mass of worms and mucus within a minute of treatment, • and so far as I could judge all the worms were dead. '

Stomach worms are perhaps the most easily dealt with—lf the term easy can he applied at all—and bluestone solution appears to be as good as anything, its main fault being that it is cheap and simple to use. "it is necessary to starve hoggets for a night to give the drench a chance to get at the parasites. Some claim that if one starts with weaning, or before, for preference, and continues to drench at intervals, with bluestons there will be no difficulty with even Ringworms, and to a certain extent this seems to be correct, the tonic effect being a great help. Hay and Ensilage. The worms that exist in the ooecum and intestines are the most difficult to deal with, for a drench becomes so diluted before it reaches them. Clilorethylene in an oily base appears to be tlie most, effective in dealing with them, it is claimed that the oily base does not. become diluted before it reaches these organs and acts on the walls more particularly, thus catching the sucking species, such as sclerostoma. It, is said not to be. necessary to starve before treatment with tills drug, an advantage with very weak hoggets, but. obviously it is better to have them empty, it was, i believe, Ihe success of this drug in dealing with liook\\ornis in humans that led to its trial witii sheep. Tara sites weaken hoggets which in favourable seasons do not simw much effect until the spring grass comes, when perhaps they suddenly start to .(Continued in next column.)

die. Drenching' as a preventive is a better proposition than as a euro. Attention has been drawn considerably of late to the feeding of hay and ensilage, and on country where it is possible and the quality is good it is of great value. The best results I have ever had in that line wcio with quickly-cured, very green hay, heavily salted at stacking. Shelter is of great importance on the flat lands, for hoggets, if suffering from parasites, 'have little power of resistance to exposure. Actual cold, as in frosty weather, is not hard on them; the ground is dry to lie on except just after the thaw, and they thrive so far as the weather is concerned.

We farmers can observe effects of methods of management and feeding, and of the ravages of parasites, but it is not possible to make the accurate experiments and comparisons necessary to determine many questions, it is here that institutions such as the Massey College can and do help us. Research and the tabulation of results are of the utmost value, for there are many sources of loss in connection with' live stock —and oilier tilings—that are not yet fully understood, and Olliers for which satisfactory remedies or preventives lio\o liul yet been disco\ crcii