FARM AND DAIRY

Taranaki Daily News, Volume LIII, Issue 202, 5 December 1910, Page 7

FARM AND DAIRY

RAISIN*} DAIRY CALVES. "About 70 per cent, of the 1,242,700 dairy calves reared in Wisconsin each year must be raised on skim-milk," writes D. 11. Otis, of the agricultural experimental station. "By good care and proper feeding money can be added to the value of any calf during the first year. The total increase by this means would amount to a very large sum to the dairy farmers of the State. The following are hints worth noting:— Young calves need whole milk"for the first few days. Skim-milk is cheap feed for calves, but should be fed carefully in limited quantities, and only while it is warm and sweet. Skim-milk may form the principal diet of the calf for six months to a year. Factory skim-milk should always be pasteurised to avoid the spread of tuberculosis. The best skim-milk is that which is fresh from the separator and still warm. Experiments show that it is only onefourth as expensive to raise a calf on skim-milk as on whole milk; 21b of grain with the proper amount of skim-milk, equals in feeding value lib of butter-fat. Buttermilk, properly handled, may profitably be fed to calves. The grain for calves should be fed first while the calf is quite Bmall, with a little bran to aid the calf in learning to eat.

High-priced concentrates are unnecessary, and give no better results than maize-meal, oats and bran, nhd crushed barley, when fed in proper combination. The roughage for calves should first be fed at two or three weeks old, when the calk begins to eat. Good, clean hay may be used. Maize silage is an excellent calf food when fed in moderate amounts. Good pasture is essential after four to six months. The management of the calf during the first year has much to do with its later usefulness. Plenty of water and salt should be given in clean vessels. Sudden changes of diet should be avoided, and regularity in feeding be practised. Warm, dry quarters should always be provided in damp weather. Plenty of roughage should be given, and not too much grain, so as to develop a capacity for handling food, as is desirable in dairy animals.