VISITOR’S ADVICE

Wairarapa Times-Age, 4 July 1938, Page 3

VISITOR’S ADVICE

FEED THE EWES WELL. Dr John Hammond, who recently visited New Zealand, in the course of an address, said: If breeders had reserves of feed, there were certain critical periods when it would pay to supply the flock with it if the natural pastures were scanty. This particularly applied to ewes in the latter stages of pregnancy, when the lamb was making heavy demands on the ewe and the mammary glands were developing. If the ewes were not fed well at that time, the progeny would be small at birth, and the ewes would have little milk for them. Milk was all-important for growth, and breeders should aim at having ewes capable of giving large quantities of milk.

The importance of feeding the ewes well in the. latter stages of pregnancy was shown by a test in which ewes were hand fed for the last six weeks before lambing. Lambs from these ewes weighed 12 lb. at birth and at 13 weeks old weighed 671 b., while check ewes, which were not hand fed, had lambs that only weighed 71b. at birth and at 13 weeks weighed only 391 b.