H.-29

3

Tie work of the Plant Research Station at Palmerston North has clearly shown the importance of strain in rye-grass, cocksfoot, white clover, and red clover, and demonstrated that many pastures in New Zealand consist of strains of outstanding merit, showing high leaf-production, a long seasonal growth, and a high degree of permanence. It is clear that these types only should be perpetuated for seed-production, and the system of pasture-testing followed by certification which is being adopted should finally eliminate undesirable strains being used in the laying-down of pastures. A good start has been made with perennial rye-grass, and over 20,000 bushels of true type has been certified to during the year. It has also been shown that many of the lines of white clover produced in New Zealand are outstanding, and certification of these will be put into operation in the coming season. Ensilage. Largely due to the instructional and advisory work of the Department, the practice of ensilagemaking has made rapid strides during the year. Even now more grass ensilage is being made than in any other country in the world, but up to the present it is mainly confined to the dairy-farmer and used almost exclusively for the feeding of milking stock. Ensilage-making, however, should be an integral feature of all extensively managed grassland, irrespective of whether it is used for cattle or sheep, and a movement over to the fat-lamb farm must be its next development, with consequent raising of ewe-carrying capacity, and the better later growth from the early-mown pastures providing good fattening feed for the later drafts of lambs. Animal Health. As regards animal health, the report of the Director of the Live-stock Division furnishes details regarding the various troubles affecting live-stock, and from this it is interesting to note that the severe mortality which occurred among hoggets in the Wellington Province during the late autumn of 1929 was not repeated this year, the prevalence of dry weather and sunshine having the effect of rendering the pastures suitable for the maintenance of health and vigour in the young animals. Good management methods constitute the best means of keeping sheep, young or old, in good health and condition, and had weather and food conditions during the recent autumn been similar to those the year before the experience gained then and the application of the advice given regarding prevention would probably have resulted in a smaller loss occurring. The losses of dairy cows, or of production from dairy cows, still continues to be a source of trouble to dairy-farmers, though, on the whole, showing a lessening tendency. Research into the particular troubles —mammitis, temporary sterility, and abortion—is being actively pursued, and, though no positive results have been attained, some good progress has been made in knowledge regarding mammitis and temporary sterility. As regards contagious abortion, it is possible by a simple blood-test to determine whether cows or heifers are carrying infection, and a large number of these tests are being made. But no simple and easy method of prevention or of freeing an animal from infection is known here or anywhere. The number of cases of mammitis occurring can undoubtedly be reduced by care in handling and operating milking-machines, both as regards the maintenance of cleanliness and the proper regulation of pressure, by general cleanliness in milking-sheds, and by good herd-management. It is important that cases be detected at the first onset, when proper treatment carefully applied will often bring about recovery. The research work into temporary sterility is following more or less defined lines, including the influence of the bull and the possibility of periods of impotency in bulls, the influence of varying phosphatic and lime content of the herbage, and the existence of diseased or abnormal conditions in the ovaries or other parts of the generative system of cows. There is also the question of nature enforcing upon cows a temporary rest from calf-production and milk-yield by way of maintaining a normal balance of health and continued later productive power. Research, work at the Wallaceville Laboratory and in the field has been vigorously prosecuted. The returns from Inspectors at meat-export slaughterhouses and abattoirs, covering 284,254 head of cattle, other than calves, a considerable proportion being fattened dairy cows, show a total percentage of 5-11 affected with tuberculosis in any degree, this being 0-11 per cent, less than in the previous year. There is some degree of satisfaction in knowing that in. spite of the increase in cattle, and their much closer segregation owing to greater carrying-capacity of pastures, the tendency of our already low degree of infection is a declining one. Pigs show a reduction of 0-4 per cent, of cases.