SHOULD CALVES SUCK THE COWS?

Dominion, Volume 4, Issue 1236, 19 September 1911, Page 8

SHOULD CALVES SUCK THE COWS?

EXPERIMENT TRIALS SAT-NO! Somo extensive experiments conducted at tlio Michigan Agricultural College indicate very strongly that thcro is no profit in producing steers by ■ allowing the calves to suck their dams. The average of three yenrs' experiments with grade Shorthorn, Hereford, and Polled Angus beefing animals raised in this way showed that it cost G. 73 cents a pound live weight to produce beef when calves sucked their dams, while similar calves from similar cows raised on skim-milk, and where the cream was made into buttor, produced beef at an average of 5.23 cents a pound, while tho cows gave a profit of 27 dollars to .28 dollars a cow over cost of feed on their butter. The animals fed on skimmilk made nearly as good gains in liveweight as did their companions that sucked their dams, and the cost vas considerably less. In a word, the animals raised on skim-milk and meals were sold nt a sight profit, whereas those allowed to suck their dams were produced at a loss except for the manure. The practical lesson for farmers in those sections whore calves are allowed to suck their dams is that such cows are kept and such beef is produced, at a loss, whereas if the cows are milked, the calves reared <5n skimmilk and its substitutes and tho cream manufactured into fine butter at the creamery, it would add profit to tho farm and help the creamery business.