REARING CALVES

Te Aroha News, Volume VI, Issue 279, 7 July 1888, Page 6

REARING CALVES

Feed skim-milk lightly. Eight to nine quarts daily in three feeds is sufficient to make a thrifty calf gain from twelve to fourteen pounds a week. More calves are killed by over-feeding than under-feeding. Feed three times a day if you wish good results. Never let the milk go into the calf's stomach colder than 98 degrees Fahrenheit. Use the thermometer rogularly in determining the warmth of the milk. Make lime water by putting a lump of lime the size of a hen's egg into a jug of water and shaking. When the water is clear it is ready for use. Keep the jug corked tight at all times. A tablespoonfui of the clear lime water may be given with each feed if the calf shows any signs of scours. If scouring occurs, reduce the amount of milk at once. An egg stirred it- the milk and parched flour are both excellent remedies. Over-feeding, not feeding often enough, irregularity and cold milk are the principal causes of scouring. Teach the calf to eat whole oats by the time it is thiee weeks or a month old by slipping a few small handfuls into its mouth just after it has drank milk. When it has learned to eat them, keep a supply before it in a little box. If you haven't oats enough for the horses and calves both, let the horses go without, rather than the calves. Don't waste time grinding the oats. Bran, oil meal and other articles are good, but oats is the most satsfactory of all. I never knew of a calf eating too many. While young keep each calf tied by itself, and if the flies are troublesome darken the stable. Don't put the young things out into the hot aun with the idea that the little , grass they may eat will compensate for the blood sucked by the myriads 'of flies that pestered them. We have had less trouble and better results with winter calves than with those, that come in the spring. _ . Dismiss all prejudice that a skim-milk calf must be a stunted, unsightly thing. We are making as great advancement in calf -rearing as in. butter or .cheese-making, and old ideas must be put away.— Prof. .Hionry, YYis. Ag. College.