HOW TO REAR CALVES

Auckland Star, Volume XXX, Issue 159, 7 July 1899, Page 3

HOW TO REAR CALVES

Upon this subject the following1 letter appears in the "N.Z. Farmer" for July:—

To the Editor of the Farmer, —Sir, Seemg1 that tuberculosis is all the talk, and so many papers writing1 on the subject, a few words may not be amiss. As I travel from Palmerston North to Pohangina, and down the central line about 20 miles, calling on all the farmers in the district, and seeing all that is going on, I am in a position to know something. "What I want to treat on is Nature's laws aa regards disease. I maintain that, having healthy stock, tuberculosis may be guarded against or prevented, or any other disease. First I shall tell you how some of the bulls are treated. A bull is tied by the head and only shifted occasionally, having^ scanty feed, and, in some cases being half starved. Now, sir, how can you expect to get strong calves when the vigour of the bull is gone ? Secondly as regards the way the calves are fed and treated. When they are dropped they are taken and tethered with a rope to a tree or put in a paddock with no shelter and half fed on separator milk or a little " grass tea " as they call It, but I call it grass water, Now if the milk is scalded and some pollard mixed with it, and a little boiled linseed sometimes, the calves will thrive well, if they get enough of it. Now, sir, I have seen a dairy farmer near Palmerston North where they always give their young calves new milk for a week, and then give them separator scalded milk with a little new milk mixed until they get strong, and then a little pollard as I said before, and they never had a weakly calf in their herd, and pet high prices for all the heifers they have to sell. If the calf is scouring the food does little good to them, and it takes a long- while for them to recover, which is a great loss to the farmer. If calves will not pay for feeding they will not pay for starving. If calves are well fed you can wean them a month earlier, because they, are big and strong to feed on the grass; but if they are weak the grass purges them and in many instances they pine away and die. Thirdly I consider heifers are allowed to run with the bull too young. I consider that two years is young enough for then they have a chance to develop into good cows, which all helps

to keep your herd strong and healthy. My contention is that a weakly thing is subject to disease if there is any about, and a strong animal is not subject to disease at all. If dairy farmers would treat their calves properly I am sure tuberculosis would not be so prevalent.—l am, yours, etc., E. White, Park Road, Palmerston.