CALF-REARING SCHEME

Shannon News, 12 February 1929, Page 1

CALF-REARING SCHEME

Most Suitable Rations L A i\ UASHiKE Jb’ARMijJK’S system Methodical recording and accurate deiuiiiiig or iarm costs and processes are pi/o.ui...uunt. ractors in tno success Lcu.ii.vu -v ail imgnsh farmer, a Mr. xnomas u.mruioy, of Handsiae farm, o.ai.iuuiars of his successful meuimas caii-rcaring will be read wiUi uivorest, ir not with profit.

Unuor ms system of rearing and feeding me newry-uropped calf is allowed to remain wan tne dam for 114 hours. At the end of in hours any teats not arawn ny the calf are eased a little, but tho cow is not milked dry until the end pt the third day. After the calf has been letnoved and fasted about six or eight boars it is fed with the mother's milk, six quarts per day be ing given at three feeds. Some calves may not need quito so much tor a day or two, but a strong calf will' take the full amount. At the end of a week half separated and half new milk, six quarts per day, is f ed, night and morning. At this xieriod a little treacle is introduced, a 'tablespoonful being scalded with one-pint of boiling water and added 1 o each feed.

Through the second week of its life the calf should have the chance of a little sweet hay placed in a hamper or skip in the caif-sbod. Some feeders, would not permit access to hay so early, but Mr. Sherdiey’s view is that if the natural craving is not satisfied at this time the. calves will probably eat litter or other material liable to cause trouble. He has often seen calves running with their darns chew the cud from the twelfth to the fourteenth day, and dozens of pail-fed calves chew the cud on the sixteenth day. It is a mistake, he says, to bunch up the hay or tie up th*. youngsters with manilla or any kind of ropes. Eight * out of ten calves were once lost at Sandside through eating manilla fibre. The treatment of a calf up to a fortnight old has been described, Supposing -a farmer desired to rear a batch ’of ten, he wmuld pour into a tub seven and a-half gallons of warm separated milk, and add to this two quarts of buttermilk and half a pint of treacle (10oz.), scalded with two quarts of boiling water. This form of feeding would con tinue until eight weeks old.

In the next 18 weeks the ration should be as follows: Ten gallons separated milk, one pint of cod liver oil, and one pint of treacle, the treacle to be scalded with two quarts of boning water. The ingredients should' be well mixed. This feed, sufficient for one meal of ten calves, in analysis and albuminoid ratio, very nearly approximates to new milk at one-third the cost. The trouble of mixing the oil and ridding the utensils of the smell prompted. Mr. Sherdley to leave out the oil and return to treacle alone.

Though the calves are far better running, they should be tied up when being fed and then relased to their fodder or hay half an hour after the liquid lias been served. If milk becomes scarce, gruel or dry feed can be sub stituted. A first-class gruel is made from a mixture consisting of 1 cwt. of best ground linseed cake, 1 cwt. of oat meal, and I4lb. of arrowroot v/ell mixed. One pint of this compound, to which a large tablespoonful of treacle has been added, should be scalded with sufficient water to make one gallon either of compensate for the deficiency or for use .as follows: —2 quarts of whey, 2 of gruel, and one quart of but-ter-milk. Each feed is for calves about six weeks old after they have had * good start on mixed milk.