CALF RAISING

Dominion, Volume 6, Issue 1634, 28 December 1912, Page 8

CALF RAISING

THRIVING WITHOUT MILK. ' Tbe following note on calf-raising without milk appeai'9 over the name of-»a Canadian farmer in the . "Breeders' Gazette":—"l wonder how many dairymen have tried to raise calves, without any milk, or at least very little. It has generally been considered that it ,is impossible to make a calf live aid thrive on any oWier than a milk diet. It is possible, though, to raise'calves with very little milk, and last winter I came nearer raising a milkless-dieted calf than I ever dared attempt before. "The mother having died a day after giving birth to this calf, it. got only a little of the first milk; which was drawn by hand and .given to the calf in a pail. Scarcely any milk being on hand, the amount fed to the calf was about three l quarters of a quart of whole milk twice a day. In addition a teacupful of:cornmeal was cooked in a quart Of water 'and this mixture stirred into the niilk, find lastly a beaten egg was added. Sometimes I had only skim-milk on hand, and, occasionally, I had to use only, hot water, to which of oourso I always added a liberal quantity of cooked cornmeal or else corhrneal, a little oatmeal, and an egg*. The skim-milk was cut out entirely, at a little over a month old, by. which time, the calf ate quite freely .of a' mixture' of meals composed of .fine cornmcal, ground oats,, a little oatmeal, and a', few handfuls of shorts and •bran.' ...

. "Other years very often bunches of eight or ten calves had to.be fed-at one time, and as', little milk was on. hand a gruel made mainly of wound fine corn aiid oats formed the bulk of the ration. As soon as they .showed au appetite for dry grain, they were started on cracked corn, which later was changed to shelled .corn. After they ate enough of dry grain the : gruel iwas: cut onfcentireljwv nown® : "Nearly. all : calf,troubles, '1 believe/ are started by overfeeding. When a calf is left to. run with the dam it is surprising how much, it will take, and on tl>e other hand when such a calf is pail-fed •' it is again surprising how:.little.,is > actually needed for it to thrive on. A'pig or . a'hog can stand an overdose, of feed better than :a calf. , . ' ~ ' ■

"On account of tho large amoust of water consumed, when several ;calves. are together in. a pen: the bedding must ba changed each day, and at least once every week- the pen is sprayed with a disinfectant. It is'also well if lime dust or ashes spread on the ■ floor before new bedding is put in."