HAY TEA AND YOUNG CALVES.

King Country Chronicle, Volume VIII, Issue 725, 28 November 1914, Page 7

HAY TEA AND YOUNG CALVES.

"Hay tea" has it's uses and abuses as a substitute in calf feeding. Very often a farmer finds himself short of milk in the winter and early spring, and is loath to knock a fine calf on the heai.

In such a case he may resort to the old-fashioned substitute of "hay tea," and if he does so he will be wise if he bears the following suggestions in mind.

"Hay tea" to be of much value should be made from "young hay," that is to say, from hay saved from grass cat on the young side. Coarse hard ha 7 does not make good hay tea. Hay with plenty of clover in it makes the best. Then it is no use just pouring boiling water on the hay and straining off. The hay Bhould be boiled in the water until all the nutriment in it is bciled out. It will then be more concentrated. It is as well to gradually accustom the cal£ to this new food by mixing some milk with it at first, and by degrees give more "tea" and less milk. As the milk is reduced and the "hay tea" increaed, add a little good meal. Any reliable brand of calf meal will do or linseed meal boiled to a jelly will answer the purpose almost aB well. Prepare the calf meal added according to directions given with it. As the calf gets older the meal can be given dry to the calf after it has bad its "hay tea." There is thorough digestion of a meal when an animal eats it dry because there is thorough mastication. The animal must masticate thoruughly before it can swallow a dry food. A Very little meal will then suffice a calf, and it is less trouble than cooking. But the calf reared entirely on "hay tea" is not much of a specimen as a general rule—big bellied, rough coated, and lantern jawed.