FARM AND DAIRY

Rotorua Morning Post, Volume 1, Issue 123, 16 January 1932, Page 7

FARM AND DAIRY

NOTES FOR THE PRODUCER. PASTURE DEFICIENCY PROBLEM For the reason that they are continually under the eye of the farmer, abortions with dairy cows are much more noticed and commented npon than the same misfortune with other classes of farm stock. However, investigators have proved that the majority of ewes Which fail to breed do so because they have aborted. As the •tfailure to breed from this cause has more serious consequence for the dairy farmer than the sheep man; and because in any case the predisposing causes are the same in both instances, in the following short discussion on the subject we will take the affeeted dairy cow as an illustration. It is hoped to throw some light on the cause or causes of abortion, at the same time showing how this trouble may be largely minimised, if not completely prevented. At one time it was generally thought that common abortion and "contagious" abortion were totally different dis'eases, the latter being directly caused by germ transmission from animal to animrl, and curable only by inoculation oi acquired immunity. This theory was attacked some time ago hy a prominent veterinary officer in'Derhyshire, who contended that the predisposing cause of contagious abortion was a shortage of the necessary amount of salts in the hlood tissues of the body, thereby weakening the body resistance to disease. "Put this right," he is quoted as saying, "and the cause .is inoperative." He contended that by giving cows suffering from contagious abortion a mixture of crud'e carbolic acid, iodine, salt, ground limestone and cod liver oil in their food twice weekly he had successfully cured the disease. Mineral Salts in Blood. Now, whether or no this contention is correctly applied to contagious abortion, one feels convinced that the proportion of mineral salts 'in the blood of a cow is the ehief determining element in the conrtol of ordinary abortion.. For this reason most pastures, and especially those which contain a large proportion of rye-grass are affeeted with ergot, a species of fungoid disease which affects the seed, turning hlaclc in colour and considerably increasing its size. Er-got-affected seed is the source of the drug known as Ergotin, which, when it is eaten by the animal and enters the abdomen and uterus, thus inducing abortion. This ergot, strangely enough, is not so dangerous or severe in its action when the grass is growing in spring and summer, but causes most damage when the pastures have dried off and the ergot spores mature on the moist surface soil. Effective Antidote. The most effective antidote for ergotin is mineral salts, hence it is obvious that where the animals have constant access to a mineral salt lick much less trouble should he experienced from abortions produced by ergot. At the same time, if the lick is scientifically prepared to include all the minerals which the dairy cow or ewe requires to build the skeleton and tissues of the growing foetus, there will be no drain on the supplies of these minerals stored in the niother's system. The cow or ewe should then keep in perwect health, able to resist any disease or temporary sickness which might otherwise incline her to abort. It has been found that the liberal supplying of minerals absorbed by animals through the agency of a well made lick gives them an added power of resistance to most forms of disease, as well as vastly increasing their production. Farmers who have experienced abortion in their herds cannot do better than heed the warning which nature is giving them. Their animals are in constant need of mineral salts, which should be supplied in the form which ensures the animals taking them readily and regularly — through a proved mineral stock food.