FEEDING CALVES.

Waipa Post, Volume IV, Issue 162, 12 November 1912, Page 4

FEEDING CALVES.

SUBSTITUTES FOR NEW MILK. An enquiry'was recently received in Australia from England respecting the best substitutes for new milk in rearing calves by hand. The reports received from the Hawkesbury Agricultural College and several experimental farms make interesting reading for farmers. The Dairy Instructor of the Hawkesbury Agricultural College replied as under: —“ At present and for the last nine months only skim-milk is used as a basis, The milk is pasteurised at ißodeg. Fahr. for ten minutes, and cooled to ioodeg. before feeding. As a substitute for fat, we use a jelly made from either crushed or whole linseed, the former being preferred as there is less waste. The linseed is allowed to boil slowly ■ (equal parts linseeu and water) for about three hours, and the jelly is then fed to the calves in amounts varying from l /\ to according to the age of the calf. In addition to the milk food, the calves are given roughage in the form of lucerne or oaten chaff, or a mixture of both. The chaff is put in a trough where all the calves can get it, and when they are about three weeks to a month old, they eat it readily, and it seems to overcome to a certain extent any tendency to scour.” The Dairy Instructor at the Wagga Experiment Farm reported : —“ The calf is left with its mother for from 12 to 24 hours after birth, and is then placed in a pen under cover and bedded with straw. When the calf becomes hungry, and ready to drink (12 hours after leaving the cow), it is fed with new milk from its mother, fresh and warm, by means of a calf-feeder. For the first week its mother’s milk is fed. The calf receives full milk till three weeks old. at the rate of 5 to 61b of milk twice daily. The whole milk is then gradually replaced with fresh skim-milk, till at the expiration of another fortnight the calf is receiving skimmilk only. At this stage cocoanut oil-cake is added to the milk, using one pound of cake to ioolb of milk. The cake is prepared by boiling in a gallon of milk tillj broken down. As the calf in-! creases in size, the quantities of ] skim-milk and oil-cake are in- j creased, calves 3 to 4 months old ; receiving 2 gallons of milk and 2 < per cent, of oil-cake per day. The froth on the separated milk is taken away by pouring the milk i into a vat with a tap at the bottom, when the milk can be drawn off without the froth. In addition to milk food, the older , calves are allowed mixed feed of , wheaten chaff, bran, oats, or ■ boiled barley twice daily after j having their milk food, the aver- i age consumption being 2oz chaff, 3oz bran, and 3oz grain. If grass j

is not available, silage and lucerne hay are provided. Rock salt, shade and water are always handy. All calves over three weeks old are allowed to run in the open paddock during the day and bedded down at night in a comfortable shed. Weaning takes place at six months old, and if good grass is not available the growth and strength of the calf is maintained with chaff, bran, silage, grain, and lucerne hay.” The manager of the Grafton Experiment Farm says:—After the third week the calf is on skim-milk, to which is then added a substitute for the butter-fat. We are at present using molasses about 3oz per calf to start with, and increased as the calf grows. Care is taken that the molasses is not given in excess, in which case it acts severely on the bowels./ Cocoanut oil-cake and maize meal have been used suecessfully. “Linseed, after the bolls have been knocked off by the pegdrum thresher, and fed in the dry form, after the calf has had its milk diet, seemed to give satisfactory results. Lucerne hay is always made available to the calf from the time it can assimulate it. Sorghum and maize silage is fed most during the winter and early spring months. Indian cane is about the cheapest form of roughage for calves after they are about 3or 4 months old. They fatten quickly on it.” The Assistant-Dairy Instrctor at the Woolongbar Experiment Farm gives the following treatment :—“ Calves up to 3 weeks old receive whole milk, starting with colostrum, as is usual. lo the sixth week they are gradually changed to skim-milk. As a substitute for fat, crushed linseed cake is used, up to %lb per day being given, starting I or 2oz. The cake is boiled half an hour previous to being fed. The ration of the milk varies with the age and size of the calf —8 or iolb at a week; 141 bat 3 weeks; 2 gallons at 2 months. In the case of shortage of pasture, silage mixed with half quantity of chaffed Indian cane (green) is given. To the above is added any linseed cake, available, at the rate of %lb per calf.”