POINTERS IN CALF RAISING.

Northern Advocate, 26 August 1913, Page 6

POINTERS IN CALF RAISING.

A great many dairymen take the calf immediately from the cow, never allowing it to suck. Others will allow the calf to take part of the milk for three or four days. In any event, it is essential that the calf shall have the first milk from a fresh cow, as the colostrum is necessary in starting the digestive system of the calf. The calf should be fed at least three times a day for the first week of its life. The quality of whole milk fed to the calf must be determined by the size of the calf, but at first should not be more than two to four pints per meal, and gradually increased. If the calf is left on the cow for the first four or five days, she should be milked out so that the calf will not get too much milk. At the end of the first week, it might receive four or six pints at morning; two to four at noon, and four to six at night. Many farmers cannot be bothered feeding the calf at midday. In such cases the calf for the first three weeks will not make its best gains; it should, however, be given a little more at each end of the day. It is advisable to continue feeding whole milk for three weeks, after which it might be gradually replaced by skim-milk. At the time of changing from whole milk to skim-milk, which should require at least a week, the calves should be put in a pen, in which there is a box, from which each calf may eat the dry grain. The meal mixture may be made up of five parts bran and one part oil meal (by weight) and mixed with five parts whole oats. After the calf has been fed the milk rub a little of the meal mixture on its nose. Until six months old the calf should have all the meal, hay, it will eat. The hay should be clean and fresh at all times. Clover and lucerne make splendid roughage for calves both in the winter and summer. The calf should have access to salt at all times. It should be provided with good, pure, fresh water as well as milk.

Always feed the calf from a clean pail, one you would not be afraid to drink from yourself. Galvanised pails are the best. Scald the pails out after using each time. When possible it is advisable to feed one tablespoonful of blood meal to two quarts of skimmilk. This will guard against digestive troubles and produce better and more economic gains.

If the milk from a creamery ds to be fed, it should hte pasteurised before feeding. This may be more conveniently done in the creamery. In case it is not done there, it would be advisable to tfo it on the farm, otherwise there us danger of spreading disease amongst your calves. Tuberculosis is a disease that is very frequently spread to both calves and hogs in this very way.

One of the essentials in raising calves is careful handling. The calf oen should be fairly roomy, 'in light and airy quarters, and it must be kept absolutely dry and clean at all times. Probably there is nothing better than sunshine in the calf pen.l The most profitable way of marketing straw is in bedding the calf liberally wdth it every day. Calves kept inside in clean, airy quarters in the summer are not troubled nearly so much with flies as are those allowed to run in the pasture.