MORTALITY IN CATTLE.

Hauraki Plains Gazette, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 5085, 7 February 1927, Page 2

MORTALITY IN CATTLE.

TALL FESCUE A CAUSE. EXPERIENCE ON THE PLAINS. The statement is made by an Orongo soldier settler of five years’ experience in the district that it is not ergot poisoning alone that causes the mortality in cattle grazed on tall fescue. He asserts that 'Jhere must be some other cause, and in proof of this can quote numerous cases .where cattle have sick <n tall fescue that was not ergot infected. At places on the. Orongo estate the tall fescue has been thoroughly burned, so that not! a straw of the old growth remains. A new growth quickly springs up, and while it is duly a few inches high cattle have beeen put on to graze. Within five days three of a mob of 50 sickened and died. Several instances can be quoted.

In further prqctf of the assertion a settler who regularly mows all his tall fescue farm as soon as it becomes long enough to cut, and incidentally is able to milk as many cows as would a farmer on clean pasture of a similar area, states that the mortality in his herd is from 25 to 30 per cent, a year, though there is never a head o'f fescue to harbour the ergot fungus. His experience is that when tall fescue is kept short by constant mowing 'tjie white clover comes away very well, and thereby provides a better balanced ration, but his cows sicken just as do those on badly infected areas. The contention of this settler clearly demonstrates the nee/1 for a thorough investigation of the manner of the growth of tall fescue on rich swamp lands.