THE RURAL WORLD.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 417, 25 November 1911, Page 6

THE RURAL WORLD.

SELECTING CALVES FOR REARING. When calves are to be reared some should be discarded and parted with at a comparatively early age. It would pay better to give away unpromising calves than to attempt to rear them. It is true, nevertheless, that there may be instances wherein calves do not at the first, and make good development later, but these instances are the exception raiher than the rule.

Whn calves come prematurely they seldom develop as well as when born at the proper time. It may pay to rear some purebreds that are thus born (says the American Agriculturist), but it is cuestionable if it will pay to rear such calves if they will be oniy worth their meat or milk value when grown. The same may be said of calves that are small and weak at birth. While some of these may develop into good animals the chances are against such a result. Among the indications of promise in young calves are strength and vigour, shown almost as soon as born, good size, and at least medium flesh, but it would be going too far to say that calves lean at birth may not be possessed of good development later. Leanness at birth may have been caused by influences in the dam. which may not work any serious harm to the calf. When calves are to be reared for the dairy there are certain indications which it may be well to look for. These include an udder well formed, and with teats well apart, also one or more rudimentaries, which are said by some to indicate milk force. In these and all calves, six or eight teeth well formed and well through the gums, so to speak, are also regarded as indicatve of vigour.

MANGOLDS FOR MILCH COWS

At the lowa station, United States, more milk was obtained from mangolds than from sugar beets, red table beets, or turnips, but the fat percentage of the milk was lower on the mangold than on the turnip ration. When roots were replaced with their equivalent in dry matter of wheat bran the yield of milk fat decreased, and more pounds of dry matter were required to make a pound of milk fat. In some Ontario experiments mangolds were found equal to sugar beet pulp as a milk producer. At the Pennsylvania station sugar beets and mangolds appeared to be inferior to silage as a feed for the production of milk and milk fat. At the Ohio station the feeding of beets to milch cows increased the consumption of other feeds and of total dry matter. There was an increase in the yield of milk, yield of milk fat, and in the liveweight of the cows, but the were not enough to offset the additional cost of feed. At the Massachusetts station. with 401b of mangolds in the ration, cows gave less milk and cream than when they were replaced with 301b of silage, and it cost more to raise the mangolds than to make silage; but these results were not comparable when figured on a dry-matter basis, as the mangold ration contained only about one-half as much dry matter in the succulent part of the ration as did the silage ration. The Pennsylvania station reported that the cost of growing, harvesting, and storing an acre of beets was more than double the amount required for an acre of corn, charging each crop the came rent for land and the same amount for fertilisers. As much digestible organic matter was prodjced in one acre of corn as was obtained from 1.91 acres of mangolds and 2.05 acres of sugar beets. In the feeding experiment the silage ration made more gains in liveweight and in milk production than the beet ration per 1001b of digestible dry matter. At the Vermont station 1001b of dry matter, both in the entire ration and in the experimental part of the ration, gave slightly greater returns when silage was fed than when it was replaced by beets, the dry matter in the silage making one per cent, more milk and total solids arid four per cent, more fat. These differences are too small to be very important, and in these tests it may be considered that the dry matter of each fodder had about equal feeding value. The beets cost more to grow, harvest, and store, and at best produced no more and no better milk. On the other hand, beets were much liked by the cows and promoted their general health and digestion, and therefore it was thought that they might serve a useful purpose as an appetiser, particularly if no other food of a succulent nature were at hand. |

In some recent experiments at the. Cornell station lib of dry matter in mangolds was found to be equal it feeding value to lib of dry matter in silage, but the cost of milk production was higher on the mangold than on the silage ration. The total dry matter required for the production cf lib of milk fat on hay, grain, and silage was 22.341b, on a hay, rgain, and mangold ration 20.931b, and when mangolds and silage were, substituted for one-half of the grain ration 22.021b. The average cost of production of a pound of milk fat on the three rations was 20.7, 27.4, and 20.7 cents, respectively.