PASTURING CALVES

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 188, 29 October 1927, Page 25 (Supplement)

PASTURING CALVES

DIET AND HEALTH

Oaten or lucerne hay is good for calves. Green feed, clean and fresh, has special virtues for qither old or young calves, and every endeavour should be made to have it available for them.

There is nothing better than good pasture. This and a clean water supply, especially in summer, are two accessories which, next to a supply of skim milk, constitute the greatest boon to the calf rearer. Closely grazed pastures are dangerous to calves, particularly during wet seasons, as the animals are liable to pick up the eggs of parasitic worms, which may be the cause of heavy mortality. Ailments of calves are most commonly due to digestive derangement, and it should not be forgotten that too violent a change of diet is liable to upset a young animal’s digestion. If the diet has to be changed, it should always be done gradually so that the animal may become accustomed to the new food. If this is borne in mind, and all feeding utensils are kept scrupulously clean, and the animal given a plentiful supply of green feed, calf-rearing should present no difficulties. American Guernsey Record.—Notice has just been received of .the official test record of the Guernsey cow

Brilliant Lassie, who has produced in 2,190 days 4,0041 b of butter-fat. This works out at an average of 571 b of but-ter-fat a month for 72 months. She averaged four gallons of milk a day for 72 months, or an average of 6671 b of fat for six years’ test. This was done under farm conditions on twice a day milking. This is an American record. A big mortality among pigs is foreshadowed as the result of the installation by many farmers of pipe lines from milking sheds to pig troughs for the conveyance of skim milk (says an exchange). A well-known veterinarian. Mr. s. Burton, says he recently visited one farm where over SO pigs were dead, IS or 20 were dying, and the balance were sick. He traced the mortality to the sun playing on the pipes and making them incubators for germs, which found their way to the lungs of , the animals, causing septic pneumonia. • As such installations are now becoming general. there are likely to be ] wholesale deaths during the summer j unless the, pipes are kept scrupulously j