CALF – MANAGEMENT.

New Zealand Journal of Agriculture, Volume XIII, Issue 4, 20 October 1916, Page 269

CALF - MANAGEMENT.

H. MUNRO,

Inspector of Stock, Wellington.

Sound judgment in feeding, scrupulous cleanliness, and shelter are the three essentials to success in the rearing of calves under artificial conditions. The farmers who are successful in such work can be divided into two classes, the first composed of those who realize that in so far as they depart from the animal’s natural conditions of existence they must substitute others as similar in every way as possible, and the second formed of those who follow the management of the first without, realizing the reason of its success.

The calf should be left with its mother until she has cleaned it, or any time -up to twenty-four hours. It should then be removed to a clean sheltered place, such place, if a building, being provided with clean dry bedding. A large number of young calves up to a month old are lost annually as a result of septic material being introduced into the system through the navel when they are confined in insanitary sheds or dirty small enclosures. The symptoms of trouble due to. this cause are scour, swollen joints, and . depressed and feverish conditions. While the application of . tincture of iodine to the navel immediately after birth will assist to guard against infection, the proper and safest method of prevention is to avoid the cause. Buildings used for housing calves should have good ventilation, impervious floors provided with good drainage, and should be regularly cleaned and disinfected. The practice of confining calves in old stables, fowlhouses, piggeries, or dirty small pasture enclosures cannot be too strongly condemned, and is bound sooner or later to end in trouble and loss to those who practise it.

The best method of teaching a calf to drink is by giving it the finger to suck in the pail of milk, and the safest method of feeding calves at any age is from the pail. In the opinion of the writer all mechanical feeders are more or less unsatisfactory, owing to the difficulty of keeping them in the clean condition so necessary to the health of the calf.

The milk or "beestings” produced by the mother during the first few days contains a material known as “ colostrum,’’ which possesses medicinal properties that are absolutely essential to the

normal development of the digestive system of the young calf, and during the first five days of its existence no milk other than this should be fed to it. Calves reared in the natural way, sucking their mothers, take their nourishment in small quantities at short intervals and at body heat (from ioo° to 102° F.), and this fact is a sure guide to the proper method of hand feeding. The fourth stomach contains the acid juices (rennet), which possess the property of coagulating or curdling the milk, which is a necessary factor in the first process of digestion. ' Hence, if the quantity of milk given at any one time is sufficient to produce more curd than the weak digestion of the young animal can dispose of, an irritation may be set up in the stomach, followed by scour, and possibly death, from acute indigestion. It follows that, in order to avoid digestive troubles and get the best results from the food supplied, hand-reared calves must be given moderate quantities in a fresh condition and at a temperature which may vary between 85° and 102° F., at stated times daily, which should be as frequently as circumstances will permit.

When a large number of calves are being reared it is best to divide them into three lots for convenience in feeding, the first lot being those up to three weeks old, which should be fed at least three times daily, the second those up to ten weeks old, which should be fed at least twice daily and have access to a good range of suitable pasture and good water, and the third those up to weaners, which should have similar treatment to the second, excepting that the milk or whey should be fed in diminishing quantities as they, approach weaning-time?

No hard-and-fast rule can be followed regarding the quantity of food which should be fed to calves at their . different stages of growth, as some require and can digest and assimilate greater quantities than others of a similar age. For this reason one person should attend to the feeding regularly, as by doing so the feeder becomes conversant with the peculiarities of each animal, and can more readily detect sickness and guard against the overfeeding, which is one cause of sickness and mortality. The best method of feeding is the bail system, as it guards to some extent against the habit of sucking ears, and the feeder can efficiently control the quantity taken by each calf. The bails should be provided with a roof and concrete floor, but, if not, they should be so constructed as to permit of easy removal to clean ground when desired.

Scouring in calves is the common result of indigestion, and in calves up to weaning-age this is attributable to causes such as

failure® to feed the beestings to new-born calves, confining .them in insanitary buildings or dirty pasture enclosures, overfeeding (which is to a great extent the result of not feeding sufficiently often), sudden complete changes of diet, the use of dirty utensils for storing milk or whey and feeding the calves, feeding unsuitable artificial foods or overfeeding with artificial foods that would be suitable in proper quantities, feeding any food which has been permitted to ferment, or feeding any food at an unsuitable temperature. The prevention of indigestion and scouring naturally consists of guarding against the reuse l, but the addition of limewater or carbonate of soaa (baking-soda) to the food, in the proportion of a cupful of the former or a teaspoonful of the latter to the milk of every five calves, will also be found very beneficial.

Calves require whole milk until they are at least two weeks old, and, as all sudden complete changes of diet are injurious, the method of changing from whole milk to skim or whey should be by substituting daily a pint of the latter, in conjunction with a minimum ration of artificial food, for a pint of the former, at the same time gradually increasing the ration of artificial food so as to reach the maximum ration when the calf is seven or eight weeks old. The quantity of artificial . food which it is desirable to feed to calves at the different periods of their age will depend on the food material used and the varying quantities which the different animals can profitably utilize, but the maximum ration of any food which could be safely consumed and profitably utilized by a calf seven or eight weeks old would be injurious and likely to cause indigestion and scour in a calf two or three weeks old.

The materials commonly used as substitutes for the ingredients taken from the milk for commercial purposes are pure linseed, oatmeal, ground maize, and pollard. Linseed is one of the most valuable of these, as the oil it contains, besides being of great nutritive value, promotes a healthy condition of the organs of digestion, and for this reason it should form part of all mixed foods. It is also particularly valuable for feeding pure in the form of linseed-jelly in small rations when starting young calves on artificial foods. The proportions for . this purpose are i lb. of seed to i gallon of water, and the jelly is made either by boiling the seed until the capsules burst and a jelly forms, or by pouring the boiling water on the seed and allowing it to stand overnight. A small tablespoonful of . the jelly should be given in the milk to young calves, and the quantity gradually increased so that

half a pint will be fed when the calf is about seven weeks old. I have found it a good practice to feed nothing but pure linseed to calves up to four weeks old, after which other materials may be added. The proportions and conditions in which the various substitutes should be used have been dealt with in detail in previous issues of the Journal.

When a calf is living almost wholly on milk dietthat is, up to two or three weeks old— whole work of digestion is carried out by the fourth stomach, but the first, second, and third stomachs take up their proper functions of preparing the food for digestion in the fourth stomach immediately the animal commences to graze. From this time on the calf should have access to good clean pasture, both in order to provide for the normal development of the stomachs and to secure their natural nourishment. While concentrated foods used in moderation are of great value for feeding to calves as substitutes for the ingredients taken from the milk for commercial purposes, or as adjuncts to pasture, it will be detrimental to the future welfare of the animals to feed such foods in excessive quantities, or to look upon them as satisfactory substitutes for bulky natural food, such as grass, which is so necessary to the proper development of the organs of digestion in the young ruminant. In order to secure the maximum degree of quality in any animal at maturity the growth from birth must be steady and uniform in the production of bone ar muscle and in barrel-development. The excessive use of highly concentrated food will cause calves to day on body fat at the expense of bone, muscle,- and barrel-development, with the result that though calves so treated may make good vealers or mature into good cattle if nursed through the first winter, they are likely to become “ wasters ” if thrown wholly on their own resources after weaning, even under moderately good conditions. Graziers who regularly purchase dairy weaners for stocking high country come to realize this fact, and give preference to clean, moderately grown calves with good bone and barrel-development rather than to the heavier, fleshy calves with light barrels, although the latter class are at first sight more pleasing to the eye.

A good range of succulent pasture is necessary to the health arid normal growth of calves, and the bad practice which is followed on many farms of utilizing the same small enclosure annually as a calf-paddock is responsible for a great deal of disease and mortality. Such enclosures, besides being calf-sick, are often foul with excrement of other animals, such as pigs, poultry, &c., and are quite unfit for the purpose for which they are used.

The suitability or otherwise of the pasture and water to which calves and young cattle up to two years old have access has a very strong bearing on their health and development. Certain classes of pasture which may be- suitable enough for grown cattle will cause indigestion and scour in young cattle. Young grass is the ideal pasture for young calves, or, failing this, vigorous pasture at the stage of growth at which it would -be considered first-class sheep-feed; whereas pasture which is coarse, sour, or more or less exhausted or stale from any cause is unsuitable and dangerous to any young cattle to at least two years old.

Irritation of the skin, to which hand-reared calves are very subject, and which may, be due to such causes as lice or disorder of the blood, will appreciably retard the development of affected animals unless promptly remedied. When lice are the cause the only remedy necessary is to apply two dressings of non-poisonous sheep-dip in the propoition of i pait dip to .80 parts of water, the second dressing to be applied ten days after the first. This can be applied with a brush or rag, or by immersion in the ordinary plunge-dip used for sheep. All parts of the skin, including the head, ears, and tail, must be treated, and poisonous dip must not be used. When irritation is due to causes other than lice it may be necessary to wash once only with a weaker solution, and follow with a dose of castoroil (from 2 oz. to 4 oz. according to age) on the following day. It will be found advantageous to wash and drench all calves at weaning, when the drench should not be more than 4 oz. (8 small tablespoonfuls) castor-oil and 1 small tablespoonful turpentine in 1 pint of milk. . .

The advantage of hornless cattle is so extensively realized that it is surprising so few farmers take advantage of the simple method of preventing the growth of horns on calves by the application of caustic potash to the horn-buds when the calves are from four to six days old. To do this clip the hair from the horn-buds and scrape the skin lightly to remove scurf; then dip the end of the stick of caustic in water and apply the dressing to the skin over the horn-buds. If this is properly done at the age stated the horns will not break through the skin, but if carelessly done, or done when the calf is over a week old, unsightly horn-stumps will probably develop. The caustic must be kept in an airtight bottle, as it will quickly dissolve if exposed to the air. The operator should be careful not to let the caustic come in contact with his skin.