FOOD FOR CALVES.

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 975, 16 November 1910, Page 10

FOOD FOR CALVES.

A" FAT AND FLOITR MKTUKE; ■ I was talking with several dairy farmers, in the Konini district . the other day (says our travelling correspondent) and the conversation led up to tho matter of tho best feed for calves. Most of these men considered that skim-, milk alone, was insufficient. Some said they used one brand of calf food, and others a different sort. Some pinned their faith to hay tea, or a decoction of bidibidi. And then one man said to-, me: "What do you give your calves?" My reply was that I had given up dairying three or four years ago,-but-I -told' them when we were milking we tried various patent calf foods, and one season tried molasses, but that in most cases the calves scoured bad%, this being particularly the case.with molasses. I then said by 'far the best and cheapest foods we had used was a mixture of mutton fat and flour. When vou have your own sheep there is plenty of fat, ancb even if you have to buy, it doesn't cost much, lake three-parts of a kerosene tin of melted mutton fat, and then work in flour, stirring it well till it becomes too stiff to stir 'any more. Of course,'it cools into bard mass. Then we gave each calf a quarterpound pepper tin of tho mixture at each meal. It was quite easy in a day or two to gauge the quantity, which was then melted and added to. the skim-milk. The calves never scoured. They grow up and were sold at top prices. So here is a tip for anyone who wants a cheap and docidedlv effective calf food. Its great point'is that in addition to its. feeding qualities the calves never scoured, they were healthy all the time and grew rapidly. ' ~:■■ --.- - ,