Bloat

Abstract

Extract Bloat or tympanites is a disorder of cattle that is probably more troublesome to the dairy farmer in New Zealand than to his counterpart in any other country in the world. In the 1954–55 season, a Dairy Board survey showed a loss by death alone of some 15,000 cows valued at £300,000. As anyone connected with the industry well knows, the number of cows dying from bloat is by no means a measure of the full economic loss. It takes no account of the loss of milk production, both from the animals which die and those that recover, or of the loss of sleep and interference with farm routine experienced by the farmer.