TREATMENT OF CALVES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VI, Issue 511, 23 October 1912, Page 7

TREATMENT OF CALVES.

PREVENTION OF SCOUR. A farmer who has lost a good may calves through scour in the past few years is given the following advice by the veterinary expsrt of the "Farmers' Union Advocate," from whom he sought advice: — You are not likely to prevent this trouble by using a lick, or any other medicinal form of treatment. But you can prevent ii by using care and common sense. Observe the following rules and you will have little or no trouble:— 1. Run the calves on clean ground, as dry as possible, and especially avoid running them in a paddock where calves have previously suffered from scouring and have died. 2. Do not let the calves have the chance ot drinking stagnant water, swamp water, or, if possible, surface water of any kind. 3. Feed them well. If using separated milk or whey, see that it is first pasteurised—that is, heated to a temperature of not less than 176 degrees Fahr. 4. Do not store surplus separated milk or whey in dirty barrels, or any other receptacle which is not perfectly clean.

5. Always make sure that the rough, buckets, or other vessels from which the calves are fed are perfectly clean before the feed is placed in them. CALVING TIME. The Friesian method of treating the cows and calves at the time of parturition' attracted the attention of a correspondent of an English farming paper, and led him to study its probable influence on the milk production of the cow. The cow is usually assisted at the delivery of her calf, and rarely ever sees it or hears its bleat. The calf is immediately removed to some other place and there fed by hand until it learns to drink freely. The milker at once takes its place in drawing the contents of the cow's udder. Generally this course of procedure induces the cow to accept of her milker the natural maternal affection that otherwise would be devoted to her calf. If he is gentle and kind she gives him her milk in response to this affeciton to the full extent of her ability. The correspondent is inclined to think that in this procedure lies the secret of great records of milk production. It lies in winning the affection of the cow. If the milker milks rapidly and to the utmost drop the cow instinctively feels that he is hungry and responds to her utmost often.

REARING THE CALF

Indications this season are that the number' of calves reared will be above normal. The demand for dairy stock is increasing steadily, and with the present tempting price of beef it should p.ay farmers to rear more steer calves than usual, provided they have the right class of stock for beef purposes. To obtain the best result, the carelessness and laxity too often seen in calf-rearing in the past must be departed from, and four points which should never be lost sight of by the farmer are:—l. To pasteurise the milk. 2. Clean the feeding troughs thoroughly after each meal. 3. Change the calf paddocks occasionally. 4. Feed one of the established calf foods with the milk. The necessity for pasteurisation as a means of checking the spread of disease must, byt his time, have impressed itself on every thinking farmer and so with the necessity for cleanliness in feeding. Improper feeding is, however, a blot on rriany a farm, but when, in addition, the calves are fed upon filthy troughs and in filthy surroundings, the early life of the animal is one long struggle against unnatural conditions.

As a result, the weaker animals go to the wall, and although those of a stronger constitution pull through, they are considerably weakened in power as a result of the trials through which they have passed. The calf paddock on some farms has been the calf paddock as long as the farm has been a farm, and has never been changed or even turned over, in spite of outbreaks of disease in the young stock. A change of paddock nerve does harm, but after an outbreak of any disease it is imperative. The abuve remarks apply to calf rearing generally, but when the stock destined for the dairy there is even more necessity to see that a vigorous constitution is assured if the animal, when mature, is to give its minimum profit as there is no animal which has to stand a greater strain on its constitution than the dairy cow. Given a good start in its infancy and being brought on without a check, assures not only a rapid development of the calf, but lays the foundation for the highest returns and healthy offspring.