WINTER FODDER

Wairarapa Times-Age, 25 July 1938, Page 3

WINTER FODDER

FEEDING OF YOUNG STOCK. STEPS TO PREVENT SETBACKS. On practically every dairy farm a certain number of heifer calVes are kept for future dairy herd replacement. The same applies to sheep farms, where ewe hoggets are often held, if not for breeding as two-tooth ewes, then for sale at that age wherr they generally command good prices. On small lamb-fattening farms breeding from two-tooth ewes is rarely undertaken, and the practice is to sell off all young sheep as lambs and buy older ewes for replacements in the flock. Young ewes seldom, if ever, give as high a percentage of lambs as older ewes, but nevertheless many farmers like to breed from their own two-tooths, and it is to this type of farm and to dairy farms that this article refers, writes Mr J. M. Hopkins, instructor in agriculture, Taumarunui, in the “Journal of Agriculture.”

In the case of heifer calves and ewe hoggets, and, in fact, of any class of young stock, their feeding in the winter months is of utmost importance, particularly so in their first winter. There is much in the saying that “good breeding must be combined with good feeding.” Supplementary crops for winter feeding should be designed to provide a healthy-growing ration rather than a fattening one —a ration that will keep the young stock vigorous at all stages of growth without encouraging the production of fat or an over-high condition. The main fodder crops supplementary to pasture are ensilage, hay, and roots, such as turnips, swedes, and mangolds. Feeding should really commence before there is an actual want and before there is likely to be any loss in condition. MANAGEMENT OF HOGGETS. Hoggets are especially susceptible to setbacks by sudden change in feeding, and their management in the winter months calls for every care. Change must be gradual—that is, a gradual increase of the time spent on the new feed or an increase of the ration, as the case may be. Young cattle on dairy farms are more or less used to home-paddock conditions, and their management is perhaps much easier. Still, if their ration is to include such feed as ensilage they should be started early enough to become used to it. Where hoggets are fed on brakes of turnips or swedes a run-off on to a good, clean grass paddock is desirable, and this will lessen the chances s of parasitic infection. Hay should be provided in the run-off. This is ideally fed in long wire-netting racks, which are easily constructed of sheep netting and ordinary fencing stakes. The length of the rack will depend on the number of sheep to be fed, and it can vary accordingly. * WIRE-NETTING RACKS. Two stakes are driven in the ground at the required distance apart, and two widths of sheep netting are stretched between and tied to these stakes, with a clearance off the ground of about 6in. The bottoms of the netting are then laced together and stakes in pairs. driven at intervals on the outside of the netting at an angle of approximately 75deg to the ground. The top of the netting is then stapled to the stakes, and the whole forms a Vshaped rack ideal for feeding hay to sheep. In the South Island chaff is often fed to hoggets as well as roots and hay, and this is rationed out in long troughs on the run-off paddock. The winter feeding of young dairy cattle is similar to that of the cows, and the rations are carted and fed to the stock on the paddocks. Roots should not be fed alone; they are too cold and watery, . and should be in combination with hay or good pasture. A watery food should not be fed with one of a similar nature, such as roots fed with ensilage. Whatever the feed or method of feeding growing animals in the lean times of the year, there should never be a want or a check of anything that is likely to have some reflection in the future life of the animals. Many of our stock diseases are no doubt due to malnutrition.