FEEDING DAIRY CALVES

Wairarapa Times-Age, 11 March 1941, Page 9

FEEDING DAIRY CALVES

CARE IN EARLY MONTHS. USEFULNESS IN THE HERD. The care given to the dairy calf from birth to six months of age has a verydefinite effect on its ultimate usefulness in the dairy herd. Calves worth raising are worth special care. The practice at the Central Experimental Farm, Ottawa, states V. S. Logan, Division of Animal Husbandry, is to separate the calf from its mother immediateely and teach it to drink from a pail. It is essential that the newborn calf receive its mother's first milk or colostrum for a period of six to nine days. This milk provides a laxative and also contains substances which inhibit the development of disease germs present in the digestive tract. Whole milk feeding should be continued for the first four weeks at the rate of about one pound of milk pet--10 pounds weight of calf. Beginning at four weeks, skim milk should be gradually substituted for whole milk at the rate of a pound each day. At this change, meal rich in fat may be introduced to take the place of the fat that is removed from the milk. Scalded flaxseed meal vzith water added to make it the consistency of gruel makes an excellent fat substitute. The gruel should be added to the milk when the calf is four weeks of age, allowing one-quarter cup per feed and increasing the amount gradually to a cupful per feed at two months of age. If available, skim milk may be used until the calf is at least six months old. Where skim milk is not available, whole milk should be given for a longer period and gradually replaced with warm water. At two ot" three weeks of age, the calves should be provided with all the good quality legume hay they will eat, and at three weeks, a meal mixture such as: —1 part ground oats; 2 parts bran; 1 part corn distillers grain; 1 part oil cake meal in small quantities. This mixture should be increased gradually to p rate of two pounds per day at three months of age. Clean stalls and clean feeding utensils are positively essential in order to avoid disease in young calves.