Important

Heat-Tolerance is Important In Tropical Cattle

According to Dr. w. j. a. Payne, officer in charge of the Sigatoka Ag ricultural Station. Fiji, whether or not cattle do well in the tropics depends upon their heat tolerance.

Animals which have a high degree of heat tolerance thrive in the tropics. Those with a low heat tolerance are unhappy under Fiji conditions. This shows itself in the poor appearance of the animal and in low production. Heat tolerance can be measured when the animal is still young and remains approximately the same throughout its life. It is to some ex tent hereditary.

Dr. Payne was speaking at a recent field day at Sigatoka. An attempt is to be made there, he said, to breed stock for their heat tolerance as well as high pro ductivity. A start will be made on animals already in the Colony and if any more stock are bought from overseas it may be possible to arrange with agricultural re search stations in the country of origin to test for heat tolerance in special cham bers where an artifically tropical climate could be produced.

He described the twin heifer experi ment which is being carried out at Siga toka in conjunction with the New Zealand Animal Research Institute at Ruakura. By eliminating all other factors it is hoped to be able to find out the effects of a tropical climate on imported cattle, in general.

The experiment is unique and the results will be of great interest to farmers in

tropical countries throughout the world At Sigatoka. the feeding, measurement and observation of the heifers arc in the hands of Eminoni Raivoka. a Fijian graduate of Gatton Agricultural College.

Queensland.

Dr. Payne spoke of studies which have been made in the behaviour of cattle on the Station. Records of the hours of the day and night when cattle graze show that the common practice of shutting the ani mals up at night is bad management in Fiji, as cattle in the Colony do much of their grazing at night. Denying cattle access to pasture at this time therefore means a lowering of the intake of food and therefore of production.

He said that there were three major

problems in the Department’s animal re search work in the Colony: First,, it had to be decided what type or breed of ani mals thrive best in Fiji. Secondly, highly productive individual animals from these types and breeds had to be selected, and first class herds had to be built up on the two stations at Sigatoka in the dry zone, and Koronivia, in the wet zone. Prom these herds good stock could even tually be distributed among the Colony’s farmers. Finally, it was necessary to learn how to manage and feed the stock so that they remained productive and heal thy. Any system of farming had to give an economic return on capital and labour, and so careful records of costs were being kept at Sigatoka.