Dodge City times. [volume] (Dodge City, Kan.) 1876-1892, 1883-08-23
Rearing Of Calves.

calves. A calf is made or spoiled in the
rearing, and it matters less what the
parentage is than what the rearing and
training may be- There is no difficulty
whatever in rearing calves in diaries,
where the skinned milk can be used as
food for them. In butter diaries it is an
absolute necessity to rear the calves.
because good cows can not be purchased
at any reasonable price. or for less than
a large advance upon their actual cost.
The skill and care expended in rearing
calves to good COWS must be paid for,
as all skillful labor is, at high price.
But the dairyman can easily rear a
young animal to a productive condition
at two years of age, in the best manner
for no more than twenty-five or thirty
dollars.
SKINNED milk is sufficient food fol
calves. During the first four or five
days it may have the milk fresh from
the dam, but after that. skinned milk
may be substituted gradually. until in 8
week none but skinned milk is used.
1t is necessary, however, that the milk
be fed warm and this is specially in
dispensable point. Cold milk must he
warmed in the stomach, and the alb
stractiOn of so much heat from this Or
gan necessarily weakens digestive &C.
ton rs well rs wastes the food.
The milk should be warmed to ninety
degrees for the first two months. The
food should be given no more copiously
than it can be digested. Three quarts
at meal is ample for the first feeding,
and two meals a day are sufficient. Fat
is not required to any large extent by a
calf that is to be reared for the dairy,
and whatever fat is needee to fill out
healthful tissue will be easily furnished
by the one or two per cent. of it left in
the skinned milk, or by the heterogeneous
matter of the milk. Six quarts day is
equal to thirteen pounds, which will
furnish sufficient nourishment for a
growth of one and One-fOurth pounds OF
live weight daily. 1t will not do to sup
pose that if ten pounds of milk produce
one pound of live weight, twenty
pounds will produce twice as much.
We can not figure in that way in feed
ing animals of any kind. Overlooking
produces Indigestion, loads up the sys-
tenn with injurious matter, retards
growth or stops it altogether, or even
reduces the weight previously gained.
Indigestion naturally results in diar-
rhea, frequent and troublesome dis
ease in young calves, and often fatal
one But it is easily avoided by escap-
ing the cause of it, which is generally
overlooking.
The feeding must be regular. and
its most exact and fullest sense, as re-
CARDS quantity, quality, condition OF
food and time of feeding. Regularity,
in fact, is the most indispensable ele-
ment of success in the dairy, and it
should be rs complete and perfect in
every way as the motions of nature. 1t
is one of the first of natural laws, and
the greatest advantage we can gain over
Nature in the domestication of our ami
mails is in avoiding those irregularities
which in wild condition are caused by
accidents of weather and season. Its
practice in the dairy ensures health and
thrift in the animals, especially in the
young growing ones.
Cleanliness is also indispensable, for
the food must be clean and sweet to
avoid disturbance Of the digestion and
nutrition. Fortunately, in the modern
improved dairy appliances, we have
perfect means of securing purity and
sweetness in the skinned milk, and
this is as necessary for the rearing OF
young calves as for the manufacture OF
choice butter.
Warm and comfortable lodgings, too,
are closely allied to feeding; indeed they
are indirectly a part of the feeding. for
if to maintain the animal best under ex-
posture to cold, which wastes it, we are
compelled to increase the food, we over
tax the weak digestive powers of the
young calf, and at once produce disor-
der and disease. Exposure to cold will,
of itself, produce diarrhea, which is
perhaps the only ailment in calves that
we need to guard against.
After a calf is q month old, the feed
may be gradually increased week by
week up to four quarts at a meal; and
at two months old little mixed ground
oats and corn may be given in the
hand, until the calf will take an ounce
or SO daily, from a feed-box. 1t will
then begin to pick some fine hay OF
clover Of it is winter calf, or eat
grass in the spring or summer. For
the latter it is best to furnish a handful
of cut grass or clover, rather than tC
turn the calf into field until it is fou
old. In the gradual increase
of the feed the first sign of excess is the
of diarrhea, which is easily
stopped by the immediate reduction
of the food and the substitution of a
quart of new milk, fresh from the COW,
given twice a day. In treating diar-
rhea astringent drugs only make mat
tiers worse. A warm, demulcent drink
is the best medicine, and we'll boiled
Cruel, with an equal part OF
gum water (gum arabic dis.
solved in water) given in very small
half pint-doses, will usually restore
the calf at once. The best medicine,
when this is found necessary, is castor
oil, in a dose of one ounce, repeated, il
needed, in doses reduced one-half each
time, until only teaspoonful is given
twice a day. This will cure the worst
cases of diarrhea. If stimulant is de-
sired, few drops OF tincture of ginger
and as much infusion of Peruvian bark
in sweetened water--one-half pint-wih
be found useful. As rule, the neces-
sity for medicine indicates neglect or
in the feeding or management,
IS dairy may be carried on under
4 regular system of management for
any length of time and indefinitely,
without the necessity for medicine or
he occurrence OF disorder or disease,
,r even accident, in any single instance.
Trouble is simply prevented by precau-
ion, instead of removed after its avoid
able admission.-Ihe Dairy.
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