FOOD FOR CALVES.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Issue 2720, 18 November 1910, Page 3

FOOD FOR CALVES.

A FAT AND FLOUR MIXTURE

I was talking with several dairy farmers in the Konini district (says a correspondent of the Dominion) and the conversation led up to the matter of the best food for calves. Most of these considered that skim milk alone was in- | sufficient. Some said they used one brand ot calf food, and others a different I sort. Some pinned their faith to hay tea, or a decoction of bidibidi. And then one man said to me : " What do you give your calves ?" My reply was that I had given up dairying three or four years ago, but I told them when we were milking we tried various patent calf foods, and one season tried molasses, but that in most cases the calves scoured badly, this being particularly the case with molasses. I then said by far the best and cheapest foods we had used was a mixture of mutton fat and flour. When you have your own sheep there is plenty of fat, and even if you have to buy, it doesn't cost much. Take three parts of a kerosene tin of melted mutton fat, and' then work in flour, stirring it well till it becomes too stiff to stir any more. (Jt course, it cools into a hard mass. Then we gave each calf a quarter-pound pepper tin of the mixture at each meal. It was quite easy in a day or two to guage the quantity, which was then melted and added to the skim milk. The calves never scoured. They grew up and were sold at top prices. So here is a tip for anyone who wants a cheap and decidedly effective calf food. Its great point is that in addition to its feeding qualities, the calves never scoured, they were healthy all the time and grew rapidly.