FARMING & COMMERCIAL

Dominion, Volume 10, Issue 2971, 8 January 1917, Page 10

FARMING & COMMERCIAL

news an:

QUEENSLAND- FLOCKS; /

:sfiQGdT i Fr^| , EST,

'- : la'the.courso■bf.'an : .:artjole':by T.C.K; '.'. on Jingoes flies'*'iiW Queensland) ,;tho writer^says:-ri.t./-"".- .. ■:■ ,; , In Central Queensland runs carrying 'from 100,000 to 150,000 sheop are sustaining heavy losses owing to scarcity 'of labour and the difficulty of treating such large numbers. Mr. D. W. 'Gaukrodger,. manager of Alico Downs, in. Central Queensland, declares that •the maggot fly is /worse than 'the ■ drought. Hitherto it conhned its to tho sheep's crutch. Now, '.'however, it blows the sheep all over the 'body, making successful treatment difficult, if not impossible. Until recent- "■ ly sheep were immune for a consider- : able time after they'were shorn,' but 'now the shearing is. hardly finished be- '"' foro the sheep which were first shorn : have to be treated for maggots. ■', :-, J Tho weather most congenial for'the /fly is' tho.closo, muggy days that fol- . low light rain.. On any psrt of ,tlie ■ sheep's body.whero moisture is con- •" served, the-fly'selects spot. _ It. ■'is impossible to treat- tho .sheep irii■.mediately, and onco the maggot estab-. ilishes itself for a day-or-two fatal re- ■ suits invariably follow.; ; Tho maggots ■ eat their way along the surface; of: ■ the body of tho sleep, causing terriblo

D NOTES,

pain to be suffered,-and.a high fever, to bo' set up. .-'•'■

.: Once attacked, tho sheep separate from: the rest of the flock, and become quite mad, and rarely survive for more than a week. It is quite a common thing for rams to be blown about the .roots of the liorns. The pain js so groat that they seek to alleviate it by scratching the affected part against bushes or even prickly pear plants. The losses among lambs are very heavy.

. Unless tho sheep arc treated soon after being blown the maggot will grow "very fast. After a week it is almost an inch, long, and is covered with hair. The creature drops off, and is said to work into tho ground, from'■where, after a few days, it emerges as a fly, and is capable of attacking and blowing the sheep. The methods of treatment aro : many, but all of them are , too slow and -.ineffective , to cope with the present ravages of tho fly. . The latest antidote used freely in Central Queensland is a. mixture of Stockholm tar, turps, and castor oil. After this is applied sulphur is sprinkle dover it. Of course, small' numhers may be treated fairly easily, but where tho flo'eks are large and the ravages of the fly are intense, tho ' treatment' is slow, and can only be ef- ' feotive on a small, percentage of the slieep. The impression- is gaining grouid that the only eifectivo way to treat sheep will be to put them through a plunge dip, or a walk-in walk-out dip,, the same as cattle are dipped in for tick infestation. But if the report on dip treatment on V'index Station, in tho Winton district, bo correct, then the dip treatment is not successful. There, it is said, half tho sheep were put throifgh the dip and the other half treated by hand.' The losses in tho slieep dipped and the extent of the second attacks by ilies were as great .as among those treated by hand. Managers of sheep stations say that they are prepared for all the. other pests ito which sheep are liable, and would rather encounter them all together than have to contend with tho maggot fly. -