BY THE WAYSIDE

Hawke's Bay Herald-Tribune, Issue 40, 3 March 1937, Page 15

BY THE WAYSIDE

News of Interest to H.B. Farmers TREATMENT 0F RAMS With higher prices being paid for rams in Hawke 's Bay, there is a tendency for some farmers to allot too many ewes per ram, particularly on the \ more rugged country, and the result is ] that the ram is over-taxed, with a con- ( sequent eifect on fertility. On flat- ( land properties. divided up into smalJ , paddocks, where the rams do not have ( to travel to any extent, up to 80 ewes ] can be served by one ram, when pro- ; perly managed, but on more open couu- I 1 try, with larger areas to cover, any more than 50 ewes per ram is a limit ; which the wise farmer does not exceed. ] Incidentally, the best results will pot ' be obtained from Tams with poor feet, as they make difficult work of travel- ; ling. Proper attention to the feet of • the sires is labour well repaid, Southern H.B. Testing. Following are tho February figufes i for the Southern Hawke's Bay HerdTesting Association; — Group average: 2699 cowa, 659.91bs. milk, 5.2 test, 34.91bs. fat. Herd of up to 20 cows: Highest herd, 2 cows, 795.6 lbs. milk, 5.6 test, 4501bs. fat; 20 to 50, higbest herd, 24 cows, 838.71bs. milk, 6.2 test, 52.51bs. fat; over 50, highest herd, 73 cows, 737.61bs. milk, 5.7^ test, 42.01bs. fat; highest cow in group, ll701bs, milk, 7.75 test, 88lbs. iat. Poor Honey Season, This has been au indifferent season for Hawke's Bay apiarists. Mr. E. A. Earp, senior Government apiary instructor, in reviewing the season, informed members of the Souuh Auckland branch of the National Beekeopers' Association that conditions for honey production had been only fair in the Waikato, and the crops had been equal to only half the normal oiitput. The season in Taranaki had been a gomplete failure, while the producers in Hawke's Bay and Wairarapa had fared littlo better than those in Taranaki. The crops in Canterbury had been nearly equal to normal, while in Otago and Bouthlaud the production had been little below normal. The difficulfcies experienced in the North Island had been entirely due to the abnormal weather experienced. A Prolific Ewe. Twenty-three lambs from one ewe is surely a Dominion record. Such, however, is the feat of a ewe given to James Birdling, of Orari, when he was a young baby, the owner and the ewe now being both a little over 11 years old. The two lambs now being raised are her twenty-second and twentythird, and, although she has been a "gummy" for some years, she keeps in good condition and does her lambs well. The Poultry Yard. Afc this time of the year great care wiil reap a good reward if it is spent watching for the early and the late moulters. Other points being equal, the later the hens moult the better, for the earlier resumption of lajing after the moult, which must be put to the credit of the hens moulting in January and FeUruary, will not make up for ihe loss of eggs at the very top of the market, which are obtained frOm those not moulting until March _ or April. When the former resume laying, the'r eggs have to compete with eggs from pullets, and the market is always low tken, whereas it has never been known to fall before the later hens begin moulting. N.Z. Farmers Envied. New Zealand farmers are to be envied, according to Mr. W. Vallance, a Rhodesian rancher and tobacco grower, who arrived last week to commence a holiday of several months in the Dominion. Farmers in Rhodesia had not vet recovered from the depression, he said. Over-produetion had been the early cause of their trouble, and now foot-and-mouth disease among their cattle was harassing them. Drought and the long distances they had to send their goods before they could be sbipped were additional difficulties.

Mastitis In Cows. Five separate forms of mastitis m dairy cows were distinguished by Brofessor Minett (Director, Institute for Eesearch in Animal Pathology) in an address to the University of Reading Agricultural Club xecently. Ninety per cent. of the cases, however, were caused by the orga'nism bringing about the chronic form, he pointed out, in which symptoms were not prevalent until some time after infection. Isolation of infected cows was the first control measure he advised, while such animals should be milked last. He noted results of a Danish expeiiment providing conclusive evidence that sores or cuts on the tfeats were important ehannels of infection, and he advocated general measures to prevent this damage and other predisposing causea like chilling of the udder. Cleaner Milk A most interesting experiment wa* conducted recently in London. where a system of premiums for the attainment of specified bacteriological standards has been in existencO for some years. Six dairy farmers, after theii experience in elean milk production on their farms, wero asked to visit six other producers and undertake the milking on one afternoon, and thus demonstrate what improvement coulc be effected with no special prdpara-

tion whatever, other than the transfei of their own sterilised utensils, which they took with them. The result was most astounding, the normal bacteria count in the case of the producers themselves being 9,119,900 per cubio centimetre^ as compared with 14,200 when the visitors did the milking. Branding Queen Bees. A new method of branding and marking queen bees to avoid all possibility of confusion has been adopted by Otago and Southland, It is explained that in some cases the queen bee might be killed by the others in the hive, and this, of course, would not be noticed by the lceeper unless he had some means of distinguishing the particular bee. The latest process ^ to brand the queen bee with a special numbered and colouxed sticker. If the bee is still in the hive in a year's time she may be inBtantly recognised and her age determined by the colour of the sticker. The method has been demonstrated to Southland keepers, who have found that it gives every satisfaction. Pedigree Pigs. Mr Sydney Unwin, of "Stonycroft," Winchester, has just had a litter of eight-weeks-old pedigree pigs weighed under the national pig recording scheme. The litter, 10 in number, has done remarkably well, the total weight being 4121b. During the last five weelcs they have put on 3081b. additional weight, an inerease of 6.161b. each per week, Mr. T. D, Urquhart, stock inspector for the Department of Agriculture, supervised the weighing of the pigs, which were fed on slcim milk with a little meat meal and pollard, with an oecasional run on grass. The breed is Canadian Berkshire.