HEIFER CALVES

Ellesmere Guardian, Volume LIX, Issue 87, 1 November 1938, Page 7

HEIFER CALVES

POINTS IN FEEDING AND

BEARING

Replying to a question for information on the rearing of heifer calves, the live-stock division of the Department of Agriculture in the current issue of the Journal of Agriculture states :: — The rearing of strong well-developed heifer calves is a part of the dairyfarmer's work, which is most important if healthy dairy herds are to be maintained. Too much stress cannot be laid on the necessity for the young calf receiving the colostrum, or first, milk, from the mother. The calf should be left with the mother for the first forty-eight to seventy-two hours. In many cases the mother will require to be milked out to relieve the udder. The main objection to this procedure is the difficulty in getting the calf to drink from the bucket after it has suckled the mother.

It is advisable to feed whole milk to the young calf for six weeks to two months at the rate of about three quarts of milk per day. This amount may gradually be increased until the calf is receiving from four quarts to six quarts per day. Some judgment is necessary between a calf of the smaller breeds and a calf of the larger breeds, and also between a small and a large calf at birth. The golden rule is to leave the calf looking for more. It is better to underfeed than to overfeed.

A good foundation of baby flesh and health in a young calf will enable it to withstand many of the minor digestive troubles. Scours associated with calves reared on skim-milk at this early stage and much wastage in dairy herds at a later stage could be avoided by the greater use of whole milk in building up a sound constitution in the young stock.

The change from whole milk to skim-milk should be brought about gradually. During the change replace

one pint of whole milk with one pint of skim milk daily until the diet is wholly composed of the latter. Do not increase the quantity of skimmilk daily at first as a substitute for the deficiency of butterfat, but add a cereal or meal substitute to make

up for the deficiency.

Excellent results have been obtained from the use of a goodquality meat-meal, liver-meal,j or lin-seed-meal. Crushed oats or a good calf-meal may be used. A small quantity should be used at first when the change-over in milk is being made. About quarter of a pound of the cereal meals or half this amount of meat-meal is given at firsthand this amount is gradually, increased until lilbs. of the former and halfpound of the latter are being fed daily. The quantity of skim-milk fed daily should never be increased above 11 gallons to two gallons. Add the meal to the milk when the calf has almost finished di'inking.

Under our seasonal system of dairying it is the usual practice for dairy heifers to be bred from so that the first calf is born at two years of age. This is the general practice, and as such is the case it is more than ever necessary that throughout the two years the young animals should be fed at all times on a mineral and protein-rich diet so as to allow of proper muscular and skeleton development. The drain of growth and bodily development, as well as breeding at such an early age, unless the animals are well-fed and free from worms and disease, will result in the production of weedy heifers with poor constitution and a lowered resistance to the more common diseases of dairy stock.

The importance of a sound foundation and the laying-down of constitution by breeding and feeding cannot be overstressed, and if more attention were devoted to this aspect the wastage in the adult dairy population would be much reduced. With the slower-maturing, larger breeds of dairy stock the breeding period might with advantage be commenced at three years instead of two years of age.