IMPORTANCE OF THE PROPER DEVELOPMENT OF THE CALF

New Zealand Mail, Issue 1678, 27 April 1904, Page 64

IMPORTANCE OF THE PROPER DEVELOPMENT OF THE CALF

“Feeding Farm Animals” is the subject of a recent bulletin published by the California .Experiment Station, in which the author says : •‘The proper growth and development of the calf is equally as important as the care of the full grown cow, for good cows cannot be made of poorly fed calves. Whether the calf be destined for the dairy or for the shambles, the true principle is to keep it in a thrifty growing condition until the end is reached. It is not necessary that the calf be fat. In fact, it is better not to be so. The feed should be such as to. produce bone and muscle, to form a strong framework with which to produce milk or upon which to lay fat in the. time of maturity. The mother’s milk (if it be not too rich in fat. furnishes the best food for the purpose, but in our commercial dairying butter fat- can be disposed of at a higher price if made into cheese or butter, and a substitute offered which is cheaper. If tint calf is to be raised on skim milk as the principal food, it should receive fresh whole milk for the first ten uays or two weeks. Then substitute skim for whole milk, a little at first and increase gradually until by the time the calf is three weeks old it may receive no whole milk whatever. As soon as this substitution begins add a small' handful of wheat middlings to the ration and 1 increase the quantity gradually as. the skim milk is decreased. Induce the calf to eat dry grain and hay as. soon as possible, and give the milk simply as a drink. It will be remembered that skim milk is highly nitrogenous, and to make it a perfect food requires the addition of carbonaceous material. Nothing supplies this any better than cornmeal bulb owing to its high price, rolled barley may be used, mixing barley, wheat, bran and middlings in equal parts and feeding from one to two quarts per day by the time the calf is two months old. “In the case of feeding whey one may begin when the calf is about two weeks old by adding a little to the regular ration of whole milk and increasing the portion as suggested above with skim milk, until the calf is a month old, when the milk may bo taken away entirely. Unlike skim milk, whey is more largely carbonaceous, owing to the l removal of the casein as well as the butter fat. Thus the grain ration should contain more protein than for skim milk feeding, and for this reason some linseed oil cake should bo added to the midlings as soon a® the whey is fed. Whenever the calf can be induced to eat the grain dry, give a mixture of two parts each of bran and middlings and one part of linseed meal. The calf develops a stronger digestion, if it can be early induced to eat hay and its grain dry, and drink the milk of whey alone. The chief difficulties in feeding whey arise from permitting it to sour before feeding and depending upon it as the sole food. While it may be possible to raise fairly good calves on skim milk alone, it should never be attempted with whey, because the latter contains only about two-thirds as much food substance a® the former. Both should] always be> fed sweet. The amount of grain necessary depends upon the quality of bay or pasture to which the Calf has aooess. The hay should preferably be alfalfa.”

The damage done by tbe floods to crops in the Meanee and Pttpakura districts is considerable. Messrs Nelson Bros, Ltd., are said to have lost 800 sheep, while Hawke’s Bay Farmers’ Cooperative Association has lost about 260 sheep. Soane 30 or 40 acres of potatoes belonging to small fanners have been destroyed. The portion of the river bank which gave way was repaired last year at a heavy cost-