HEALTHY CALVES

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XXIII, Issue 80, 16 March 1933, Page 11

HEALTHY CALVES

BUILDING A VALUABLE HERD

CARE AND TREATMENT OF YOUNG STOCK. DANGER OF INDISCRIMINATE PURCHASES. To build up & valuable dairy herd and then neglect the health ot the animals is courting disaster. Dairymen should realise that next 1a importance to breeding and feeding comes the health of the Isard. In the best regulated dairy herds there is considerable loss from unprevontable causes, but the exercise of care along scientific lines will reduce to a minimum the preventable losses.

it is not imperative that every dairy herd should be composed of stud cattle. A» * matter of fact there are drawbacks in a stud dairy herd, but what is of the greatest importance is that a stud sire should be secured from reliable milk production ancestors with a good constitution, and free from the taint of infectious or contagious disease*. Having secured a suitable sue, dairymen should then proceed to build up the herd by testing and culling, always paying proper attention to feeding along correct lines. The care of the young stock which is to enter the herd and replenish the wastage and loss is of the utmost importance. It is among young stock that much of the unprvventable loss occurs. it has been frequently pointed out that success is dairying does not depend entirely on the collection of a number of reasonably good milking cows, and their proper feeding and milking. If a dairyman attempted to strike a balance sheet based upon his anticipated expenditure and revenue without allowing for wastage from disease and sickness, he would pretty quickly discover that what ho estimated to be a profit would be converted into an annual loss.

A* most experienced breeders now know the more serious diseases of dairy stock are infectious. They are caused by tho entrance of a germ, in nine cases out of ten brought into the herd by a cow purchased in a public sale yurd. Although such diseases as pieurn, tuberculosis, contagious abortion and manuuitis are wall known, they arc not easily discernible. For tliis very reason the greatest possible car* should bo exercised when purchasing a cow. as the introduction of an affected animal into the herd will kad to a spread of the disease. If only dairymen would follow but comn.onsense advice of experienced men, they would realise that it was to their own advantage to build up their herds and replenish the wastages from Ik ifers of their own breeding. The grave danger from indiscriminate purchases will be more readily realised when it is slated that any one of the serious diseases mentioned above may be present in a cow which seems perfectly healthy to all outward appearance*,’ The seller may or may not know of the presence of disease, so that his guarantee of good health is useles* as a safeguard to the buyer. Contagious abortion ii a case in point. Many fanners owning a cow that has slipped a calf decide to dispose of her. They do not realise apparently that she may not repeat this, but passing away to another farm becomes a serious menace as a spreader of the disease in h«r new owner's herd. She has probably done ail the harm she can do in the original herd, and ns she is likely to develop into a good and useful member of the milking herd, she should l>e allowed to remain there, or be destroyed. Practically the same applies to the disease of mammitis. Many a cow affected with mammitis has been sold as a springer, and proved to be a good milker. The disease was still present in one or other of her Suarters, and this becomes a serious anger to other cows in the herd. A realisation of these facts should bring home to dairymen the danger of buying except from reliable sources. It will be found much more economica, and a much safer course to breed heifers on the home farm.

When buying heifers springing to their first calf dairymen should exercise very great care in making inquiries about the health of the herd from which they are buying. A much better practice is to purchase a wellbred sira with good milking strains, and breed up from selected cows. It is not contended that all loss from disease may be cut out, but there are comtnonsense precautions to be taken on every dairy farm, which should reduce losses very considerably. It is realised that calves in a dairy herd are at a disadvantage from the start. They are, when only a few days old, deprived of their natural food. The mother’s milk is too valuable to allow of any of it going to the ealf, who is, thereforo, compelled to subsist on separated milk and artificial feed. Calves, by the very nature of their rearing on a dairy farm, are very susceptible to disease. Their resistance to disease is lowered, and quite commonly they become affected with white scour and blood scour. Worm infestation is another ailment common in eAlves. Something must be done to compensate in a measure to >he calves Yer the loss of their proper natural feeding. Commonaenic dictates more careful attention than now is the practice on many dairy farms, so that tho calves may be carried over the early stages in safetv.

They should have comfortable, clean and warm pens. Their shelters should give adequate protection from heat in the summer and eolG in winter. The yards should be subdivided so that too many calves will not mingle in a small space. On the best conducted farms in eastern lliverina considerable care is given to tho calf pens which are concreted and a hose attached to a standpipe so that the pens may be regularly cleaned out. Feeding utensils lire thoroughly cleaned each e.hy. nnd when Sot io use arc placed in such a pu*illou

that they will be open to the sun and fresh air. It is also recognised as a good practice frequently to change calves from one paddock to another. Low-lying country or swampy areas are fatal to the health of calves, and pigs should never in any circumstances be allowed to have the run of the calf shelters.

Calf scour, one of the most prolific sources of loss amongst calves, is to a great measure preventable. It is the result, in a large measure, of faulty sanitation and indifferent feeding. A comparison between dairy bred calves and beef calves shows that the latter, which have .he run of the paddocks with their mothers, rarely ever become infected by calf scour. Every dairyman who has been suffering losses from sickness among his calves should look to his calf pens, and, having indulged in a general clean-up, should in future pay more attention to the feeding, comtort and the sanitation of the calves. If there are sick calves present, they should be isolated from the others, and ior a few days given a ration of whole milk, in which, at feed time, a teaspooniul of formalin should be mixed.

By improving the general health of the lairy herd the farmer will be taking a step towards increasing his financial leturns. Green feed and hand-feeding out qnly enable the herd to maintain a regular milk-flow, and consequently give more profitable returns to the owner, but are the greatest factor in assisting to prevent digestive disorders. Inquiry should also be made as to the mineral condition of the feed available to the cliiry herd. Even though an adequate ration may bo fed, if there is a risficieney in minerals the dairy cows will suffer from impaction paralysis of ‘ho third stomach, bone weakness and milk fever. Dairy cattle should have ready access to a coarse salt lick, and should be occasionally fed bone meal. Whore caro is exercised in this manner it will be reflected in the improved health tone of the herd. The expense involved, which need not be heavy, will be recouped in higher production.