HOGGET MORTALITY.

Auckland Star, Volume LIX, Issue 230, 28 September 1928, Page 17

HOGGET MORTALITY.

SOUTHLAND FARMER'S VIEWS

Mr. J. King, Invercergill, who is regarded as one of the most experienced farmers and sheep men in Southland, has given some advice to farmers on the prevalence of lung-worm and such other troubles which have assisted to cause the heavy mortality amongst hoggets this season (states an exchange). "The heavy death rate in hoggets is quite different from lamb mortality which, as I have remarked before, was in my opinion incurable," he says. "I understand the death-rate in hoggets if general all over the Dominion, and in most cases it is almost impossible to stop it. Many farmers have been in the habit of drenching their lambs for years. The point is—is drenching required"? No never. Lung-worm is the outcome of » bad check. They may get that at very early stage of their existence before they are weaned, but the most dangerous time to contract lung-worm is after weaning and before they are pui on feed. As bearing out by argument most farmers drafted off their wether lamb 9 on to feed and turned their ewe lambs back on •'o the grass paddocks, That, in my opinion, was fatal. I would like to ask any farmer who put hi? wether lainbs on feed how many he lost. He may have lost a few with inflami ination, but no coughing or luug-work I with the lambs that are kept going. That at any rate has been my experience. No doubt this is far the worst season for lung-worm that we have had for many years. The dry summer niav have had something to do with it. Weaning lambs and turning thei on to grass pad" docks is bad. It does not matter how good the grass is. They must have water or they will go back. A check like this if severe enough, will give hoggets lungworm. On the other han:. if a farmer shuts up his paddocks so that he can wean his lambs on clean pasture he will have no lung-worm. Until this season 1 never drenched a lamb. I had no need to. I blame myself entirely for this season's trouble, for, despite sixty years of shepherding. I can still make* a mistake. It is this mistake I wish to amplify here so that all readers will realise that the trouble among the hoggets is not an epidemic or peculiar visitation, but is nothing more than the natural result of thei constitution being undermined by failure to put theni on the proper feed at the right time. That is where l rred."

Another Remedy. During the discussion on the heavy mortality amongst hoggets throughout Southland this winter, a well-known sheepman told our correspondent that his losses were nil. His method of keeping his hoggets right and well is very simple. In the autumn he chops a few big branches off some old pinus insignis trees and carts them out into the paddocks where his hoggets are grazing. They, or at least, those, that require turpentine, will eat all the green of these branches and even strip off the bark.

During a run through the Waimea district last week, a big line of hoggets, 2000 or more, was observed, on a break of turnips with a big run-off on old pasture, and in both the turnip ground and run-off there were boughs of pinus insignis, which had been stripped of both bark and greenstuff. A nicer and healthier line of hoggets it would be difficult to find.

This confirms the opinion held by many farmers that turpentine is a good preventive. Several good farmers for many years hare been using turpentine with their rock-salt or salt licks in their sheep paddocks. They make a hole about an inch in diameter in the rock salt or salt-lick, and pour turpentine into it. After the turpentine has saturated into the salt they give it another dose before putting it out. These farmers claim that their flocks are immune from the trouble.