FARMING NOTES

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 3, Issue 211, 11 September 1940, Page 3

FARMING NOTES

COMPARATIVE IMMUNITY FROM) GRASS STAGGERS AND MILK FEVER Last spring a comparative immunity from grass staggers in cows (grass tetany) was experienced in the Waikato where, hitherto, it has been most prevalent, states the annual report, of the Director of the Livestock Division, Commenting on this disease and also on the prevalence of milk fever, the District Veterinarian, Hamilton, writes:— "Neither of these seemed as prevalent as in previous year 3, this being particularly noticeable in the case of grass staggers. Probably the late spring and shortage of feed has a bearing on the unusual freedom from these diseases." Enlarging upon this, the District Superintendent, Auckland, writes:— "The observation is interesting; in previous years, when the cattle wintered well and spring growth came away early, cases of grass stag gers gave a considerable amount of work and worry, as treatment cannot be looked upon as being at all satisfactory. The position with regard to these diseases next spring will be very interesting,, as the general conditions with regai*d to feed this coming winter premise to be the reverse of what they were last year." As the conditions vary from season to season the dairy farmer requires to adapt his feeding programme to suit the conditions met with. It is particularly important to follow a rational line of supplementary feeding stock with hay or ensilage in order to balance the diet in a spring noted for an early flush of growth. Such a feeding programme over the critical period will also tend to lessen the incidence of cases of milk fever. As with grass staggers, milk fever was not prevalent last spring. Isolated cases were seen in the later calving cows which had been on spring feed for some time before calving. The majority of farmers can deal with this disease in its regular form. To those not conversant with the disease advice has been given during the year.

PIG CENSUS RETURNS TWO LITTERS A YEAR ADDS 21 PER CENT. TO YOUR PROFITS. Reports have been published on previous issues of the "Journal" on how pig meat production is influenced by the amounts of meal used, by the amounts of pig meat sold per sow, by the percentage of meatmeal used, and by the carrying of winter pigs. This article deals with the effects of making full use of sows. On 157 farms, sows produced on an average only one litter a year, and averaged 9,8 pigs born; on 125 farms sows produced approximately two litters a year, and averaged 17.9 pigs born per soav. The mortality rate is 25.5 per cent and 27.4 per cent respectively, leaving 9.1 pigs for sale in the first case and 13.4 pigs for sale per sow in the second. The average number of cows milked, per farm is 47 and 48 respectively and the average number of sows kept 4.8 and '4.2 respectively. Both groups make the same use of meal, approximately half a hundredweight per cow; both use the equivalent of about one-third of a ton of roots or grazing for pigs per cow milked. After paying for meal used at the rate of £14 per ton and allowing for roots or grazing at the rate of 5s per ton, the eajning value of skimmilk per cow is 32s 6d in the first case and 40s 5d in the second. These figures confirm the pronouncement made as a result of the previous year's survey of this aspect of pig production, and are of interest not so much for the novelty of the information as for the fact thai they put a measure on the importance of getting the fullest use out of sows. Those who get two litters per year get 25 per cent better returns than those who get only one litter.

TOOLS FOR FARMERS BRITAIN MAKING 7,000,000 Britain's edge tool industry has organised its own export group to send overseas this year more than 7,000,000 "pieces," nearly all of them agricultural implements. There are, for the most part, plantation hoes, forks, picks, spades, shovels, scythes and hatchets used' in the pro duction "of sugar, tea, coffee,, rice, maize, cocoa, cotton, rubber, palm oil, soya beans, oranges and bananas About two-thirds of them will go to the Empire including Australia. New Zealand, India, Ceylon, Burma Cyprus, Malaya, North Borneo and the Mandate of Palestine. Others will be exported to Greece, China, Indo-China, the Netherlands East Indies ancl the Philippine Islands. The plant is now at work, for the greater part in the English Midlands, on this considerable output. It has an important bearing on Britain's food supply which might suffer from lack of tools for agriculture; indeed, after 30 months .of the last war the dearth of tools in Nyasaland became so acute that the Gov ernment made an order that their manufacture should take precedence over war work already in hand..