COD LIVER OIL FOR CALVES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 423, 16 December 1911, Page 6

COD LIVER OIL FOR CALVES.

Although it wag shown some few years ago by Professor Campbell in his experiments with calves at the Yorkshire College Farm, that the addition of cod liver oil to separated milk was one of the most economical methods of feeding, we hear very ]itile of the practice which he inaugu- | rated, notwithstanding its excellent results. I cannot but believe (says a writer in the Field) that where it is possible to substitute an oil or fat of a much cheaper character for the butter fat of milk, and to obtain the same results as are obtained by milk feeding, there must be a great advantage derivable by the breeder. A gallon of cod liver oil costs about as, or about 6d per pound, whereas buttor fat is worth in many instances more than double, and should be worth on farms where first-class butter is produced at least Is o(J per pound, for we must not forget that butler fat comprises only 85 per cent, or thereabouts of the weight of butter, and is consequently of higher value. There are many breeders who rear their calves with the aid of linseed meal. This food is supplied because of is richness in oil, and here again oil cakes the place of butter fat, or that where a calf is fed after a few weeks from its birch upon a meal which is rich in oil, whether it be linseed oil or not, the cost is materially reduced. Let us suppose that a calf meal containing 10 per cent, of oil cost 3 S3 per 1001b, about the price of good linseed cake, and it certainly should cost no more. The coat of the oil in this instance would be less than the cost of cod liver oil, making full allowance for the value of the other feeding materials which the cake contains. In the case of milk, however, if we take the solids at 121- and the fat at per cent, of the total volume, we find that the weight of fat present in the food—that is, the solids—is about 25 per cent, of the whole, so that a calf food intended to replace the solid feeding matter or milk, all of which is digestible, should contain a butter fat equivalent, with slightly larger quantities of a carbohydrate, such as starch, and han albuminoid which is equivalent to the casein of the milk. It should not, therefore, be difficult for the rearer of calves to devise a mixture for himself, making full allowance for the indigestible matter which the various foods of which the mixture is composed contain.