REARING HEIFERS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 1, Issue 4, 28 April 1939, Page 7

REARING HEIFERS

'S ■5 ° MINERAL REQUIREMENTS . fc CAREFUL REARING PAYS r g While a great deal of attention ' n has recently been paid to the min. L y er;il requirements of dairy cows in P profit, the demand ior minerals by L g the growing heifer, which must lat. i- er take her place in the herd, is t're. l- qucntly overlooked. 3<r It is true that when a cow is done well, the calf should get a good start _ 1- in life, but in general practice -his is all it does get. Most systems of at calf-rearing involve the use of skim milk, and very little else, followed r _ by water and very little else except e _ grass, for the utilisation of which the calf's digestive organs are seldom ot sufficiently developed at weaning.

Not only as calves, but as weaners and yearlings, heifer calves ar e olten grossly neglccted. Farmers are often told, vaguely, that they should not have their heifers in too good condition when they are about to calve for the first time. Nobody ever explains quite what this means, but it results in manv heifers being kept on a bare maintenance ration, almost always deficient or ill-balanced in mineral mat. ter. Little or no regard is paid t 0 the fact that the animal is growing and, what is more, has in front of her many years during which she wilt j be asked to produce a calf annually, I provide a large quantity of milk and maintain health. AVIATION AND AGRICULTURE Farmers have used aeroplanes for marketing, for sowing the dusting crops, and even for heTding cattle. Now the market gardeners of Delano, California, are employing an aeroplane as a ilying scarecrow.. Despairing of controlling flocks of sparrows which were ravaging their lettuce crop, they recently hired a pilot to roar over the fields for six hours daily. The birds could not stand the racket and went off the lettuce diet.