FARMING WORLD.

Waikato Times, Volume 124, Issue 20821, 3 June 1939, Page 26 (Supplement)

FARMING WORLD.

By “STOCKMAN.”

of the Calvea Much has been -written and will continue to be written about the proper care of the calves. Certainly this is an important subject and one that must be given the fullest consideration by dairymen. An Australian authority writing on the subject recently recommends the giving of a tablespoon of linseed meal to the feed of the calf until it is a month old. It can be mixed with hot water and added to the separated milk. Thus the fat the separator takes out is supplied. At the first sign of scours, the same authority advises the mixing of plain flour to a smooth paste with water, adding water to nearly a pint. This is put in a bottle and poured down the calf's throat. If the animal does not improve, the ration of milk should be cut down and a gruel made by boiling the flour and water should be given. A little milk may be added, hut It is as well to remember te give plenty of water. As the calf gets better, the milk ration can be slowly increased. No matter how plentiful separated milk is, U is better to underfeed than over-feed young calves. They drink very quickly, and if allowed will drink too much. A mixture of bicarbonate of soda and water is one treatment recommended when separated milk “blows up” a calf. If the calf has eaten too much green clover or lucerne, the same treatment can be carried out. Concentrates For Cattle Although the farmer Is always •naturally anxious to reduce his farming costs rather than to increase them, more support is gradually being given the idea of supplying some form of concentrate to the dairy herds during the winter months. Farming management is improving all the time, but still there is the * alarming fact that the annual toll from stock disease continues to increase. Insufficient care of the herds during the winter period is thought by many to be a direct contributing cause of the stoex less from disease. Meat meals and blood meals sold under a variety of names are rich in digestible protein. A high-class meat meal with a crude protein content of 65 per cent has about twice the digestible protein of commercial cotton-seed or linseed meal. In farming terms, this means that lib of high-grade meat meal has about the same feeding value as 21b of linseed or cottonseed meal. The cost of meat or blood meal is not greatly different from that of the vegetable meals, and if they can be conveniently included in the ration of dairy cattle feeding costs will be reduced. Only dairy cattle which have been consistently underfed take kindly to meat or blood meals. Cattle which have been accustomed to small quantities of these meals from birth also present no difficulty. As a general rule, however, dairy cattle only slow-

ly acquire a liking for concentrates containing meat and blood meals and at first only a few ounces should be

inoluded in the regular ration. The amount can he gradually built up to the required level, which will, of course, depend upon the quality and quantity of other foods used. The dairy farmer can usually adjust the concentrates in the ration to conform with the milk yield of the individual cow. Milling By-products Grain and molasses, grain and salt, milling by-products—such as bran and pollard or such attractive meals as linseed, cottonseed, or cocoanut—may' be mixed with the meat and blood meals to attract unwilling cows. Animals which still refuse to eat these meals may be kept for a short time without any food, other than that offered, if allowed plenty of water. It is important that the feed should be changed night and morning, so that a fresh mixture is always before the cow. If this system appears too drastic the nose-bag method may be used. Freshly chaffed green maize and the meal are mixed before using, and the contents of the hag should be changed night and morning. Most cattle can be induced to eat meat or blood meals by one or other of these methods. Both meat and blood meals should be fresh, free from objectionable odour, finely milled, and sterile. An undue greasiness is not detrimental, but, in general, the higher the fat content the less palatable the meal. Meat meals should show a good analysis. Any preparation with a crude protein content of less than 50 per cent is not a true meat meal, but a meat and bone meal. Blood meal should show a minimum of 75 per cent crude protein. It should be almost without smell. As both meals decompose when allowed to remain in a moist condition they should be stored in a dry place and any excess in the feed boxes be removed each day. Material which has been “fouled” by moisture soon becomes a source of danger, and is then only fit for fertilising. Milk Fever In the Herds The average dairy cow in New Zealand to-day is a higher producing animal than the average cow of a few years ago, but with the appearance of more higher producing cows has come an increase in milk fever among the dairy herds. A very well-known method of overcoming milk fever is by inflating the udder, but the advance of science has devised new methods of coping with this trouble. For many years the cause of milk fever remained a mystery, and although pumping up the udder, which was an accidental discovery, proved a satisfactory method of effecting a cure, no one knew just how or why it did. Some eight years ago Professors Rus-sell-Greg and Dryerre, of Great Britain, showed that the disease was caused through a deficiency of calcium (or lime) in the blood occasioned by the sudden transition of the udder from the dry to the lactating state, with the consequent rapid excretion of

large quantities of calcium in the colostral milk. They showed that when a cow was down with an attack of milk fever, the calcium conten: of her blood was from 20 to GO percent below normal, that she recovered when this was restored to normal again and that the reason why inCating the udder brought about the recovery was that it suppressed milk secretion and through this lessening the demand for calcium gave the animal's system a chance to build up the composition of the blood to normal again from her body reserves of that mineral. Giving of Calcium Greig and Dryerre found further that the recovery of a cow from an attack of milk fever could also he rapidly effected by giving her an injection of a specially prepared solution of calcium, and as this had a number of advantages over inflating the udder, a new treatment along these lines was evolved by them, and proved quite satisfactory on extensive field trials. As it was first formulated, however, there was a certain amount of risk attached to its use, and moreover its technique was 5-uch that only a trained operator could apply it, consequently it could not be used generally. The treatment has since been modified overseas so that the risk has been eliminated and the technique simplified, and as a satisfactory and cheap preparation of the necessary drugs can now be obtained, it can be safely and easily adopted by any stockowner, providing ordinary care is taken.

Description of Preparation The preparation used is named Calcium Boro-gluconate (B.W. and Co.), and the dose of it given is 2 to 2£oz, This is dissolved in 3 pint of boiled water and the solution injected—preferably at blood heat —under the animal’s skin, without getting it deeply into the muscles. All the equipment which is required for giving the injection is a hypodermic needle about 4in long and l-Bin in calibre, a funnel large enough to hold the halfpint of Boro-gluconate solution and 3ft or 4ft of rubber tubing which will fit on to the end of the needle and on to the funneL If one wishes, instead of the funnel, a wide-necked bottle can be used for putting the Boro-gluconate solution into the neck of the bottle which is stoppered with a rubber cork through which pass two lengths of £in glass tubing—one length extending almost to the bottom of the bottle—the other length being shorter and extending just below the cork and on the outside end of which the rubber tubing as attached so that when the bottle is filled and turned upside down, the solution will run out down the tubing. To make the injection, some spot on the side of the cow’s neck where the skin is loose, is selected, and an area of skin lin to 2in square is shaved. This is washed with soap *nd hot water and then painted with tincture of iodine, to prevent any germs from being carried under the 6kin by the needle. All the appliances used for making the injection have to be thoroughly sterilised by boiling just before use.