CALF FOODS.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume III, Issue 858, 9 November 1916, Page 11

CALF FOODS.

In some districts oats may not !>• 'available for feeding calves, so that i substitutes will have to be looked for. ' All farmers u<e potatoes for pigs. A J few dairymen know that potatoes make j gooi ; feed for milking cows, and can j also be used for calves. When potaI toes are very cheap, it often pays J to feed them to stock than to them; and every season there are culls ! which should be carefully put aside at j digging time for this purpose, and not j for seed. The potato diet can be begun at four weeks from V.irth, as an addition to the skim-milk and fat-substitute j ration. The procedure advocated by an American dairyman is to wash the potatoes thoroughly, cook properly, crush into a pulp, mis with milk, and pass through a wire screen to remove lumps and skins. At first 41b potatoes is fed to each gallon of milk, and this is increased very gradually until the maximum of lib of potatoes to the gallon is readied (American gallon equals 8lb). The mess is always fed warm, and never _- when sour, at which stage pigs will J better appreciate it. As in every other I feeding, care must be taken not to over- | feed, which is the origin of most troulde with calves. In cool weather, enougn potatoes can be cooked to last three or four days, ami in warm weather daily cooking is needed. On Victorian cheese farms calves are fed with sweepings which can be obtained cheaply from the dried-milk factory, added to the whey. In Cheshire, directly the whey is run from the curd, it is heated in a copper over a quick fire. Just before boiling point, the albumen rises in Hakes, known ns "fleetings." which are skimmed off as they rise. Boiling must be prevented m " by adding cold whey, which also helps the fleetings to rise. These fleetings are given during the third week with milk, half and half, at the rate of nix quarts per day. The following we;'k the milk is reduced to two quarts, and the fleetings increased to six quarts gradually increasing the difference until at the sixth week eight quarts of fleetings per day are given, and the milk dropped. At this stage the calves are also fed Alb of linseed cake and crushed oats mixed in equal proportions. This is gradually increased to lib of the mixture per calf per day. At five months old the calves are put out on pasture, the amount of fleetings being gradually reduced in the last two weeks. Crushed maize is also highly recommen led to I add to whey, as an economical substi- : tute for the butter-fat aud casein exI tracted.