Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1881-12-23
Raising Calves for Cows.

A Wel-ralsed calf Is the cheapest COW that
can be procured. There are everywhere
among dairymen complaints that good COWS
are difficult to procure and that ordinary
COWS do not pay sufficiently for their care and
keep. And it is true. The basis of it all is
that the calves are not sufficiently cared for.
At a recent state fair, where the writer was
one of the judges of cattle, the best calf
shown under year old was six months old
and was not worth the premium offered but
not awarded for want of sufficient merit
There we're several calves poorer than this
one. The writer could have shown a calf at
home, six months old, as large and as well
grown as any yearling shown at this fair. and
which has not yet cost five dollars. 1t never
has had drop of whole milk since it was five
days old. 1t has been fed on warmed, sweet,
skinned milk, that would otherwise have been
fed to pigs, until il was four months old.
When six weeks old it was taught to take a
spoonful or two of ground feed, and soon af
ter began to eat a handful of the cut feed
which was given 10 the cows 1t had perhaps
one ounce of feed day then, and now when
it is six months old it gets about one pound,
which costs II cents daily. For this expense
the calf is paying very well.
Two two-year- COWS raised from calves
in the same way are now milking, with their
first calves, and for one l was offered $50 be-
fore her calf was dropped. This price / re-
fused, because l could not buy such COW for
800 anywhere that know of. Each of these
COWS is milking twelve quarts q day, and
yields nine pounds of butter every week One
is pure Ayrshire, and one is mixed Ayrshire
and Jersey-no fancy stock, but good dairy
animals. Now, any one can figure up the
cost of a COW thus raised. The rations are as
follows; For the first month six quarts of
skinned milk daily, worth three cents per
day, but really of no value because it is quite
unstable. The second month eight quarts
day; the third and fourth months u quarts
day, with an occasional drink of water. No
sour milk is given, and need not be if care is
taken TO skim the milk after SO hours stand
ing. In any properly managed dairy the milk
should be sweet then and the cream all risen.
After the calf is weaned the pasture and a
small allowance of meal cost perhaps two
cents a day, and when winter arrives the calf
takes its place with the COWS, and is fed with
them, receiving a small ration of the same
feed. 1t is carded with them, and cleaned
and handled as they are, and when it comes
in as a COW it is handled with the greatest
ease, and is MIXED as easily as an old COW.
There is no breaking in" needed, and every
thing goes on with the greatest comfort.
Putting everything at high price, such a
COW would not cost over S25 or $50 when two
years old and in profit, and the extra value
of the animal in her first years product will
| easily repay this; so that when three years
old she stands free and clear and has paid for
herself Now, if dairymen would follow this
plan with their good heifer calves, there would
no longer be so much grumbling about the
scarcity of good COWS, and dairymen would
| change their ideas in regard to the cost of
raising good COW. They would find it to be
less than the price paid for the poor COWS they
are now buying.-COr. Country Gentleman.