FARMING WORLD

Waikato Times, Volume 125, Issue 20917, 23 September 1939, Page 22 (Supplement)

FARMING WORLD

BY “STOCKMAN"

Testing For Mastitis More and more is being - learned in New Zealand about mastitis, but even the most optimistic will not agree that even with considerable additions to our knowledge this disease will be brought within control within a short space of time. Experimental work with milking machines is being undertaken and this possibly may bring additional knowledge. Some farmers consider that the incidence of the disease depends to no small extent on the management shown by the milkers at milking time. In any case, more careful management at all times is a step that should be taken immediately there is any likelihood of the disease. Segregation of the affected animals and milking them separately are, of course, well-known control methods that have been used extensively in the Waikato. During recent years veterinary research workers overseas have made considerable progress in respect of the treatment of mastitis in dairy cattle, particularly when treatment is applied in the earlier stages of the trouble. 'Prevention, of course, is better than cure and happily the chances of success in restricting the spread of this disease are much greater than with most other contagious diseases, as, for example abortion and tuberculosis. Preventing Spread Discussing the problem of mastitis, an overseas authority maintains that complete isolation is unnecessary, separation of the infected animals being quite sufficient. Once separated, he says, the two lots must he milked by different milkers, or if this is impossible, lion-infected animals must be milked first, and the infected animals dealt with only after operations have been completed on the animals of the first category. Obviously, continues the same authority, the success of such measures necessarily depends primarily on the ability to separate the infected from the non-infccted animals, and. as it is possible for animals of the latter class to show no clinical indications of the disease, and yet to prove quite as potent in spreading the trouble as those manifesting definite symptoms of mammitis, the problem is one of considerable difficulty. The certain test is, of course, the bacteriological examination of samples of milk drawn from each quarter of each but obviously such tests, demanding shilled workers and expensive apparatus, must prove costly and relatively slow in yielding the information desired. Attempts have, therefore, been made to devise tests of a physical or chemical nature which would not possess these disadvantages. Though such tests are acknowledged to be useful, they have hitherto not proved sufficiently delicate to yield absolutely accurate results. A Bio-Chemical Test Particular interest, therefore, attaches to an announcement in “Nature” to the effect that research workers at the National Institute of Dairying, University of Reading, have, in the course of their investigation, evolved a bio-chemical test whereby, using a colloidal solution of a gold salt as indicator, eminently satisfactory results have been obtained. In the words of the communication referred to, “the colour of the gold solution remains unaffected by sera from milk of healthy individual cows or quarters, but turns instantaneously to violet or blue in the case of even slight infection of the udder.” Farming in England Speaking at a Conservative Party gathering in England, the British Minister of Agriculture, Sir Reginald Dorman-Smith, said that the British Isles were agriculturally more important than the vast territories of the Dominions. Great Britain and Northern Ireland produced in a year £100,000,000 worth of food more Ilian Australia and, although they had a tremendous and very serious drain away from the land, there were still engaged in agriculture in Great Britain half a million people more than those engaged in Australia and New Zealand together. The problem that faced British agriculture was an easy one to state. It was merely to see how they could assure the farmers remunerative prices and returns for the goods they produced, and he believed that until they could see to it that they were getting their remunerative returns it would be impossible for them to go as far as they wanted in improving the conditions for the farm workers. The Government had been making experiments to fTnd a permanent scheme and policy which would last for all time, a policy which would not be reversed because there was a change in political parties, and one which farmers and farm workers would say must remain. First of all, the Government was determined to try to tackle the question of imports, to try to regulate the flow and prevent the market being borne over the whole time. They had to co-operate with the other countries concerned in supplying the market, and establish a system whereby the supplying countries could sit round a table, lind out what the consumption was and what home producers could supply and share up the rest between them. Ready To Co-operate The Dominion farmers, said Sir Reginald, were perfectly ready to cooperate, because their stories were exactly the same as those of British farmers. It should not be thought that because their farmers could not make a living they were probably in-

efficient. Re did not think there was any single country * where the primary producer was making a fair showing out of the land, and the subsidising of farmers abroad had accentuated the difficulties at home. lie believed that there were no better workers on the land than those they had at home. Secondly, the Government proposed to put a bottom in the market for farmers 4 staple commodities. They had been criticised as pouring public money down the farmers’ throats. The truth was that the farmers had a peculiar duly to perform to the country, a duty of maintaining the land in proper heart so that it would be of real use in time of war. A farmer could not close up a field here and there when prices had gone wrong, and for all the crops on which the fertility of the land depended the farmer would not be guaranteed a profit—no Government could do that — but there would be a guarantee that the fanner would not suffer such a loss as would prevent him from fulfilling his duty to his farm. The Government said they would draw up some system of price insurance of the staple commodities or else would have the equivalent machinery to enable the farmer to face the future with some confidence that he would not suffer the price fluctuations he had in the past

changes In some of the characteristics of the reproductive capacity of rams indicated a definite relationship between fertility and the seasons. Care of the Calves Pail-fed calves must be treated with extreme care. Contaminated milk and dirty feeding pails induce a diseased condition of the stomach and intestines, resulting in loss of appetite, thriftlessness and frequently diarrhoea. Cleanliness in feeding is very important, hut there is no use in scalding pails if the feeder of the young calf, in teaching the little animal to drink from the pail, introduces a dirty hand into the milk In doing so. One must be logical in this as in other respects. The most important consideration is the quantity of milk fed at each meal. In the natural condition a calf sneks its dam some dozen or more times per day, taking a little milk on each occasion, and under such circumstances it is a very rare occurrence to lind a calf experiencing any difficulty because of excessive feeding, even when on a high-yielding cow. 'Excessive pailfeeding of milk is, however, of frequent occurrence, and is responsible for very great losses. The explanation lies in the limitation of the number of daily feeds to three, and more often to two, as a result of which the calf approaches the pail exceedingly