SEASONAL NOTES.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume 54, Issue 2, 20 February 1937, Page 111

SEASONAL NOTES.

THE FARM.

Some Aspects of Feed-provision in Sheep-farming.

Two features of sheep-farming are ■of particular practical ■ importance at present. In the first place the high ruling prices for sheep and for the main products in sheep-farming make it increasingly desirable both to lessen losses due to avoidable deaths in the flocks and to increase the returns from each unit of production ; each sheep that dies now is a greater loss than was the death of a similar sheep in the recent past, and quite often each producing unit is associated with an increase in depreciation and in other items in the cost of production. In the second place, it is well established that in stock-mortality, in lamb-production, and in wool-production much depends on the feeding of the sheep throughout the year, and particularly on the feeding during the winter and early spring months. That there is a connection between the feeding of sheep and their disorders and diseases generally is understood, but . quite often it seems to be understood in really an inadequate and hazy fashion that does not lead to the due measure of attention being given to the work with pastures and crops that brings about proper feeding. Hence some of the major instances in which there is relationship between the feeding and the troubles of sheep seem worth noting. For instance, antepartum paralysis or “ dopiness ” of ewes is a nutritional disease definitely associated, as a rule, with ewes falling off .in condition at the approach of lambing. The incidence of “ bearing ” trouble is considered often to be connected with the type of feed. Underfeeding at some period during pregnancy is commonly accepted as an important cause of premature births of lambs, of dead lambs in the womb, and of lambs dying or being weak or small at birth. Veterinary, research tends to show that rickets is one of the causes of losses in hoggets during the winter and spring months, and so it is of practical significance that rickets can be produced experimentally by feeding a diet deficient in its content of minerals e.g., lime and phosphates. Nutritional measures form one of the first lines of defence against internal animal parasites. The value of good feeding in combating such parasites often is ignored in practice ; drenching without good feeding is apt to' give unsatisfactory results. Regarding this point the Director of the Live-stock Division, in the 1936 annual report of the Department of Agriculture, states, — “ In attacking the problem of internal parasites of sheep too much reliance must not be placed on the specific action of any anthelminthic agent whilst neglecting the maintenance of the lambs’ strength by the provision of extra suitable supplementary feed. In this respect the feeding of chaff, oats, and good hay will be found to produce good results. The difficulty which is said to be experienced in getting hoggets to eat hay in the early winter might be overcome by educating them earlier to take it. . . . The benefits of such practice are indicated in seasons when through abnormal conditions the pasture . . . cannot be maintained in that short condition which provides the best sheep feed.”

Incidentally it already has been indicated herein that, feeding has a considerable influence on the percentage of lambs obtained. The ewe that inherits the capacity to produce twin lambs does not necessarily give birth to twin lambs ; with unsuitable feeding or management she

may produce only one lamb or none. Only under' proper, feeding and management can she produce the two lambs. Further/feeding affects the fertility of sheep— i.e., their ability to produce living, healthy offspring, which, alas, often differs substantially from their fecundity. The number of lambs to be produced is determined at the time, of mating, and subsequent feeding does not affect this number, but it may greatly affect how many of the total lambs . produced are live and healthy lambs. • ' . Apart altogether from diseases and disorders of sheep, feeding may influence the production of fat lambs and of wool. That the direct influence of feeding in fat-lamb production may be substantial has been indicated - strikingly by . work of Canterbury Agricultural College. In this work it was found that a difference in feeding not especially great was correlated with a difference in the weights of lambs •at birth. The lambs of one mob averaged 9-7 lb. whereas those of another mob not fed so well averaged 7-7 lb. The true significance of this difference is shown from the relationship between the weight at birth of lambs and their subsequent development. In the work under consideration, lambs 6 lb. to 7 lb. weight at birth made an average increase in live-weight equivalent to 20 lb. in fifty days, while lambs of 9 lb. to 10 lb. and lambs of over 13 lb. live-weight at birth made increases of 26 lb. and 32 lb. respectively. Expressed in another way the largest lambs grew 60 per cent, more rapidly and the lambs intermediate in size 30 per cent, more rapidly than the smallest at birth of the lambs being considered. In conjunction with this should be taken into account the further fact that increased rapidity in growth begets economy in the quantity of feed consumed. This is rather well illustrated by the following data which make clear the contrast between the position relative to lambs light at birth and that relative to lambs , heavy at birth : only two out of every five of the light lambs were fattened by Ist March, and only one out of ten was fattened off the mother, while all the lambs heavy at birth were fattened by Ist March, and two out of every three of them were fattened off the mother. The foregoing statements form a serious indictment of inadequate feeding in sheep-farming ; in short, an attempt has been made to indicate that poor feeding frequently is connected causally with diseases and disorders in the flocks, and that, apart from this, parsimony in feeding brings about readily a low standard of efficiency in the conversion of feed into flesh. • All this leads up to the matter of outstanding importance : in sheepfarming a weakness that is both widespread and grave generally rather than slight is poor feeding of the flocks in winter and early spring. The weakness probably would be lessened rapidly if it were more spectacular. But it does not altogether “ strike the eye ” ; it is an insidious rather than an open weakness ; typically it results in a somewhat heavier mortality in ewes, a decrease in twin births, an increase in lambs dead at or shortly after birth, a heavier consumption of feed to reach slaughter stage of lambs, and a bigger “ tail-end ” of lambs requiring feeding on rape or other special crop. Possibly no one of these by itself is really serious, but, taken together, they may have an influence great enough to make the difference between success and failure. Current Measures to strengthen Feed Position in Winter and Spring. The practical question of current importance is what may now be done towards remedying the common weakness. Foremost of the measures suitable for this .purpose is phosphatic top-dressing in late summer or autumn. Top-dressing.— Phosphatic top-dressing has been found to give results financially attractive on sheep-farms over a wide range of conditions of

soil and climate, including not. only farms in districts of relatively heavy rainfall, particularly in the North Island, but also ones in districts of somewhat low rainfall on the eastern side of both the North Island and the South Island. In all cases in which it is fitting to sow truly perennial strains of such species as rye-grass, cocksfoot, white clover, and. red. clover, and in which, such strains have been sown recently enough not to have been replaced already by inferior pasture species or by weeds, then profitable results may be counted upon from phosphatic top-dressing. In short, swards which contain a fairly substantial number of plants of the better pasture species may be expected generally to respond profitably to phosphatic top-dressing. Even though these plants of the better species are small and possibly far from prominent in the sward, they serve as . a valuable foundation upon which to build a sward in which ultimately they tend to become dominant as the level of fertility is raised by successive phosphatic top-dressing and its associated beneficial results, such as the strengthening of the nitrogen content of the soil by clovers invigorated directly by the phosphates. Replacement of Inferior Swards. —-When swards are wholly or almost wholly lacking in plants of the better pasture species, the position is not so straightforward. Usually in the case of arable land it is advisable to break up such inferior swards and to replace them by ones containing. a better foundation for good response to phosphates. Underlying this is the view that phosphates are likely to be more profitable when stimulating such species as rye-grass, cocksfoot, white clover, and subterranean clover than when stimulating such plants as brown-top, suckling clover, and even weeds. During recent years the economic soundness of ploughing inferior swards and replacing them by ones rich in such species as rye-grass, &c., already mentioned has been well demonstrated on sheep-farms in Canterbury and Hawke’s Bay, as well as in other districts in which there is longer and more extensive knowledge that phosphatic top-dressing is profitable under the conditions prevailing. Sward-improvement by Surface-sowing of Seed.— Sometimes, and this most usually because of the rough or broken nature of the land-surface, it. is not practicable to plough inferior pastures and replace them by better ones; sometimes, it is practicable but not economically attractive to do so, as in the case of light or dry soils in eastern districts of both Islands. In both of these sets of circumstances the possibility of strengthening of poor swards by the surface-sowing of suitable species, and especially of subterranean clover, should be examined. Some of the available experience relative to the use of subterranean clover for this 1 purpose is given in the January, 1937, issue of this Journal. The use of subterranean clover in such circumstances is an application of the fact that subterranean clover often enables phosphatic top-dressing to be exploited on country where it would not be economic without subterranean clover. .At times, in top-dressing sheep . country, it pays to supplement phosphates by other top-dressing materials, but phosphatic fertilizers may be looked upon as the basis of any top-dressing programme. Specific guidance about the top-dressing of pastures is obtainable from district officers of the Fields Division.

Special Arable Crops.— Sheep-farmers now also may valuably improve the position in respect to feed for winter and spring by growing suitable special crops, the culture of which has been dealt with in these notes in the two issues of the Journal preceding this, and is referred to subsequently herein. . '

Work with Special Crops.

The proper growing of forage crops sown in late summer or earlyautumn may serve valuably to provide, later on, feed which is much needed. Land from which such crops as. oats, wheat, maize, millet, soft turnips, or

rape have been removed, recently, if sown immediately in temporary pastures, or cereals, may be expected to strengthen appreciably the feed position in winter and in spring. ’ If the land to be sown in such crops is so hard as to make satisfactory skim-ploughing impracticable, then cultivation with disks set with plenty of “ cut ” frequently will serve satisfactorily as an alternative to the skim-ploughing. In preparing for such crops it is not necessary to reduce the surface-layer of the soil to a fine condition. In fact, the presence of clods in the surface, soil may be an advantage by obviating the caking of the soil that at times is brought about by rain beating on soil of a fine surface. These crops, and especially the temporary pasture, should be sown with as little delay as possible. They serve well, hot only for sheep and cattle, but also for pigs : they become available when the feed directly available from the pastures is likely to be harmfully scant. . . Every year areas of maize and of millet intended for green-feed are allowed to become too woody or are cut down by frosts. : It is preferable to utilize such crops earlier and to use the land thereby rendered vacant in growing the fall-sown special crops .mentioned just previously. Maize or millet that cannot be used advantageously as green-feed should be turned into silage provided sufficient is available to enable this to be done without the unduly high proportion of waste that is unavoidable in making small quantities of silage. Often during March a cut of hay or green-feed is . available from fields of lucerne. After such a cut, if weeds call for attention and if the conditions are dry, it is likely to be advantageous to give the crop a stroke of, tine harrows or other suitable harrows possessing teeth with the fine points needed to avoid undue injury to the lucerne plants. Relative to such work it should be kept in mind that at times more harm than good has been done by cultivation of lucerne. Cultivation, unless a fairly prolonged spell of subsequent dry conditions can be counted upon, is likely at its best to be merely futile, while repetition of cultivation, which to destroy weeds has to be so severe that it also destroys some of the lucerneplants, inevitably leads to an undesirably weak open “ stand ” of lucerne. Generally liberal manuring, the refraining from grazing, and the mowing of the crop at the proper stage are preferable to surface tillage as means of controlling weed-invasion of lucerne. General Considerations regarding Pasture Establishment. At the time of writing the number of samples of the 1937 harvest which have been tested is not’ great enough to indicate definitely the standard of the whole new seed-crop, but there is evidence that the germinationcapacity of the seed will vary so greatly as to make it distinctly advisable to purchase pasture seeds on the basis of guaranteed germination-capacity. Each successive year adds to the extensive evidence from farms of the superiority of certain strains of pasture species over other strains which are in commerce. The only assured way of obtaining the superior strains is the purchase of certified seed. Certified seed embraces a “ commercial grade ” of seed as well as the “ permanent pasture ” and “ Mother ” grades of seed with which farmers and merchants have had longer acquaintance. The “ commercial ” grade of seed normally is less costly than the other grades when all are of corresponding germination-capacity and purity. Further, the commercial grade of seed is eminently suited for a wide range of use. Full particulars about the different grades of certified seed are available from district officers of the Fields Division. Top-dressing at or about the time of sowing pasture-seed mixtures often greatly assists in bringing about vigorous successful establishment. It is well to top-dress young pastures early, in time to prevent deterioration, rather than to find it necessary to apply fertilizer later in an endeavour to build up pasture which has deteriorated.

A common cause of unnecessarily and regrettably poor results in pasture establishment is the sowing of the seed at too late a date in the fall of the year. March sowings widely are to be recommended.

—R. P. Connell,

Fields Division, Palmerston North.