A CORRECTIVE FOR LAMBS ON RAPE.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 472, 2 April 1909, Page 3

A CORRECTIVE FOR LAMBS ON RAPE.

A Canterbury authority, writing with reference to the heavy mortality of lambs 01 rape this season, advises farmers to sow s little mustard among the rape to act as 0 corrective.' Ho says:—"A good number oi lambs have died on rape, a greater numbei than usual. They havo not suffered frorr enlarged ears and other ailments as muci as they havo done sometimes, but they seem to die off quietly and quickly, and it is souk of the best that go. It is annoying to fine lambs dead, but there seems to bo no helj for it. Even where grass and turnips have been grown with the rape, giving a desirable change in feedj ; the lambs have died. A point should be made of growing a little mustard for rape lambs. It is a good corrective, and lambs eat it readily, 110 doubt for much the same reason as dogs eat grass. Mustard quickly runs to seed, and lambs will eat it their just as readily as before. Nature seems te havo given lambs an instinctive knowledge that mustard will counteract the excessive nitrogen contained in rape. No doubt the lack of water has in some instances 'had tho effect of keeping lambs from fattening well. Even if thoy are on such succulent feed as rape, they need water, and if thoy cannot get it while on the rape paddock they should bo moved every few. days to a paddock where there is water, bo that they may get a drink. Sheep on turnips will often do very well without water, but on rape or grass, sheep, and especially lambs, require a little water." 1 ■