IMPORTANT TO FARMERS.

Pukekohe & Waiuku Times, Volume 5, Issue 149, 23 February 1916, Page 3

IMPORTANT TO FARMERS.

We are trying to do two things at once, which nature only intended to be done one at a time, and this with only one set of tools. Bead for yourself what follows and see if it is not true.

In ordinary nature the calf from birth drew from the cow somewhere about twenty pounds of milk nor diem and that in small quantities at frequent intervals, and when sufficiently nourished was turned off by the mother to shift for itself. The process of reproduction then began again in the mother. Now what do we do? When born the calf is taken away from the mother—it is fed anything up to two gallons at a meal and we wonder at the indigestion and other bowel troubles that occur, never giving a thought as to what kind of tools nature gives the calf inside, and if they were over intended to do for the calf what we wish. Our idea is to feed 'the calf as we wish, and not as it was intended by nature. Scours, unthriftness, ring worm, aud kindred diseases aro the outcome of this faulty feeding. Turn to our treatment of the mother cow. She is also called upou to provide huge quantities of milk twice daily and at the same time carry on the functions of reproduction, while still giving large quantities of milk. To do this properly a cow should have at least two mouths and two stomachs—one to 6upply the milk giving functions and the other to nourish the calf as yet unborn, but we expect her to do tbe two things with one set of tools—thus showing our ignorance of the processes that are employed. It is a well known fact that there are several pounds of mineral matter required to every lOOOlbs of milk, and that the bones tissueetc of the unborn calf also require a large amount of mineral matter which must be obtained from the grass, but the quantity is insufficient for her need. She eats all she can hold and at about the fifth month of gestation the unborn calf begins to make persistent demands for mineral matter to convert the cartilageous form into true bones The pinch up to now has not been pressing unduly on the calf, but as the latter's demands increase so the distention of the cow's stomach increases in like proportion, and if the mineral matter necessary to stiffen the bones of the unborn calf is not supplied then it ie pinched or pressed till life is extinct, and thus we get a slip. This form of abortion constitutes fully 80 per cent, of all slips and occurs at the fifth to seventh month after service, while the contagious form generally occurs much earlier, viz., first second or third month. The moral to draw from this is that a constant supply of necessary mineral should be always before the cow, so that she can get what she wants without trying to provide her needs from the grass alone, for in time she will develop a depraved craving for bones, sticks, or huge quantities of necessary grass—all of which do not give her what she wants quickly enough. The remedy has been found, and is easily to bo had, and is now put before you in the form of Eatjen's COW-LIO which is now obtainable in your town or at the Dairy Coy.—Charles Kidd, Pukekohe, District Representative.—Advt.