HEIFER CALVES.

Ohinemuri Gazette, Volume XXI, Issue 2728, 7 December 1910, Page 3

HEIFER CALVES.

One of the most common methods of choosing the future milking herd is to select certain calves because their

mothers are good, maintaining them in good condition until they arrive at maturity, and then putting them to actual test. This is, in many respects, a fairly safe method, but one which often admits of failure. In breeding, a good cow sometimes produces an inferior heifer calf; although if more care were exercised in the selection of the'sire this would not happen so frequently. If a cow is a really good type of milky Shorthorn, and the sire is a pure-bred Jersey or Guernsey, there need be little doubt about the calf turning out well. Notwithstanding this, there are many factors at work, all of which have their influence on the permanent utility of a heifer calf. Constitutions, for one thing, is an all-important factor, and careful tests should be made to prevent the dreaded tuberculosis germ from being handed down from parents to progeny. At the same time, we know it is possible foi cows slightly afflicted with tuberculosis to give birth to healthy calves ; and it has been recently proved that this disease can be entirely eradicated from the herd by isolating the newly-born calf, and feeding it upon sound, wholesome miik. Of course the danger which is present when cows are consumptive from a hereditary source is much greater than when the disease has merely been contracted through the animals being underfed or kept in poor condition.