FOOD FOR CALVES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 3 February 1941, Page 9

FOOD FOR CALVES

MILK & COD LIVER OIL SUBSTANTIAL SAVING. EXPERIMENTS IN ENGLAND. By selling all milk whole and by -j using dried separated milk, small quantities of cod liver oil and yeast. ~ Derbyshire farmers have been able to cash in on all their milk and still rear strong, sturdy calves. » Experiments on rearing calves with ' skim milk and cod liver oil were made at many centres in the early years of the present century. In those days nothing was known about vitamins, and the basic idea was to substitute ' the 5 to 6oz of butterfat present in 1 1 gallon of new milk with some other ’ fat or fat-forming food (writes J. R. Bond in the "Farmer and Stockbreeder"! Hence in using cod-liver nil. which was then obtainable at about *■ 3d a pound, several ounces were given ■ per day. and the calves suffered from j excess. About five years ago there was on view at the Agricultural Education stand of the Ashbourne Show a pen of streng British Friesian calves which had been reared from birth without receiving any whole milk at all and only using joz of good cod-liver oil. The calves attracted considerable attention for they were good calves j from a nearby farm and they had cost j very little to rear. A report described' their diet, but in due course inquiries! showed how firmly rooted in farm- ' ers minds was the idea that cod-liver 1 oil was used to replace butterfat. I We were asked whether there was' not some error in the statement that; the calves received only one tablespoonful per day. Conventional re-1 commendations, it was pointed out. ■ said "several ounces.” .

TYPICAL DIET. i The Ashbourne calves had received colostrum for about three days and then were pul on to warm separated milk To the evening feed was added one tablespoonful only of an approved brand of cod-liver oil. The volume of separated milk was increased, as required, to gallons per day and the calves were encouraged to eat a balanced dairy mixture; but the quantity of cod-liver oil was not increased, and there was no reason to increase it. Since liquid separated milk was not available to many farmers in the, county, trials were made with the' dried form. Good results were obtained when the suckling fluid was part liquid and part reconstituted j dried skim-milk but when the at- I tempt was made to rear from birth on dried separated milk and cod-liver oil. difl’icuhies were encountered during the first fortnight or three weeks. Some of the calves developed paralytic troubles, possibly due to the destruction of some of the vitamins during the roller-drying process used in the manufacture of the cheaper grade of dried milk. (The dried milk used for baby foods is made by a different process in which lower temperatures are used).

Five per cent of dried yeast added to the dried milk improved the vitamin B content of the diet and made the mixture more suitable for calves too young to cat hay and ruminate.

Some Derbyshire farmers buy dried separated milk, cod-liver oil and dried yeast separately and mix them just before feeding. Others buy the three ! in a ready-mixed "prepared calf milk," I which is used at the rate of 11b per j gallon of water. The powder is first made into a , paste of uniform consistency and then : thinned down with warm water to the required volume. The most common practice is to give new milk during the first fortnight and the substitute only from the age of three weeks. One of the most successful rearers, however, contends that there is no. need to feed new milk at all. provided that the suckling fluid is carefully made and fed in sterilised pails. ADOPTED BY PRIZE-WINNERS. There is ample evidence that the method above described is successful so fat as concerns the quality of the calves. As an instance, the calves in ! each of tile three prize-winning herds in the Derbyshire Agricultural Socie- ! tv’s farm competitions tins year had i been reared on the dried skim milk I method, as were those in the first i prize-winning herd last year. What about the economics of the process? In place of 100 gallons <»f new milk costing between £5 and £B. according to the season, the calf receive;, lew', of "prepared milk" costing now £2 Ids, and an extra ration of lewt of trough food costing about 12s at prei sent prices. The saving is thus from ; £2 to £5 per calf , Tl'.is Derbyshire method of calfi rearing enables the farmer to rear ! first-class autumn-born calves easily : and ready to turn out to grass next | spring; but they cost too much if they I receive new milk. i Calves receiving l.oz of good cod- | liver ml arc more safely provided with ! the vitamins A and D than if they ■ received the butterfat present in a gallon of new milk, especially milk i produced from indoor feeding ’ Fn .m the vitamin jxzint of view it I is ir.iiemsary to feeu more thim the '!« per day. ami ..is a »ourc<- <f fat ' rod-liver oil IS far too vXpei!s:Ve Ap. r. fr.-m that, mere as mg the quan- ; 'itv of oil causes indigestion; and the calf can malto its own fat without receiving it in its diet