GRASS BEEF 



27 



youngsters give their grazier much trouble and a considerable 

 amount of anxiety. But if a large, portion of store-land is to be 

 farmed, and not robbed, in the future, this care is essential and 

 the anxieties must be faced and overcome. By using younger 

 animals, more will be available from a reduced quantity of land. 

 Under our present system ten acres of store -land will often 

 carry two cows, one two-year-old, two yearlings and two calves. 

 This stocking enables one yearling and one two-year-old to be 

 sent out every year. Put a foster calf on to one of the two cows 

 to be reared with her own, and turn out three yearlings every 

 year, and the store population goes up at once. Rear two foster 

 calves, one to each cow, and turn out four yearlings every spring 

 and the store cattle population goes up still further. 



Before going into the detail of this economy, I may say that 

 by personal experience I am familiar with the difficulties and 

 gangers of turning out a bunch of young yearlings about 

 15 months old on to rich pasture producing quick-growing, 

 succulent grass, especially in mid-spring when the nights are 

 still chilly and the ground is often covered with white frost at 

 dawn. If neglected they will " blow," they suffer from diarrhoea, 

 and above all, they are attacked by the small "lung worm 1 ," 

 which causes " hoose " ; and young cattle suffer very much more 

 from all these evils than older beasts. But experience has also 

 taught me that the difficulties can, with much care and trouble, 

 be overcome. The farmer grazing this very young kine must 

 first of all grow some hay ; he must, further, supply shelters in 

 each field. These need not be elaborate, but they must be 

 substantial enough to keep off the worst of the weather, and to 

 give a dry layer. Each shelter must be surrounded by a small 

 enclosure, or pound, in which the young animals must be shut 

 in at nights and receive a breakfast of hay every morning. If 

 the grass is causing them to scour, they must be given more 

 hay ; if the frost has been very heavy they may have to be kept 

 in later in the day. They will pay for some astringent food, such 



1 The Strongylus micvuvus and S. filaria inhabit the air passages, these 

 and possibly other minute worms cause the terrible cough and other dis- 

 tressing symptoms called "hoose" or "husk." Young animals constantly 

 lose health and even die through the mischief caused by the worms. Older 

 bullocks, though often much upset by them, seldom suffer very seriously. 



