Soil Elements And Nutrition

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 84, 20 August 1948, Page 5

Soil Elements And Nutrition

EXPERT'S ADDRESS TO YOUNG FARMERS Certain elements in the soil are common to the growth of plant and animal life and combinded will produce muscle and tissue and fats and other bodily components, said Mr C. H. M. Sorenson, nutrition expert for W. and R. Fletcher Ltd. and formerly district Pig Council supervisor for the Taranaki area, speaking at a Young Farmers' Club lecture evening at Thornton recently.

All foods contained certain amounts of Carbohydrates, Proteins and Fats, and the three main forms of foods for animal consumption are succulent, which contain a high percentage of water, roughage which has a high fibre content and concentrates which contain a high percentage of nutritional food and are low in fibre content. In the next section Mr Sorenson enumerated a number of the concentrates and their various uses, such as anti-infection foods to raise the animals' resistance to disease and promote growth, like fish oils and green foods. Anti rachitic foods to promote bone growth, are fish liver oil. Anti-sterility foods found to be of assistance to animals are wheat germ oils and many grains. The anti-haemorrhage foods, particularly useful in poultry work, are flax seed, green feed and linseed meals. He also stressed the importance of feeding foods of high vitamin content to animals, especially breeding animals. He then went on to quote experiments which had been carried out by feeding two animals on similar diets with one diet deficient in certain vitamins. Those animals which had not been fed sufficient vitamins had serious calving troubles and the calves were of a very poor type. Diseases in twin lambs and the sparcity of twin lambs was a direct result of vitamin lack, Mr Sorenson went on. The next section of his address was on the minerals and vitamins which promoted growth and the abnormalities that would occur in the young through a deficiency. He also gave some facts regarding the internal construction of animals.

At the conclusion of his address, Mr Sorenson showed several films and lantern slides on reproduction among mammals, milk supply, harvesting, cropping industries of the United States, and a film called "This is Colour" all about dyes.