The Kenosha telegraph. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1860-1888, 1884-02-29
Raise More Heifer Calves.

We have long been convinced that too
many good heifer calves are annually
sold for veal, particularly on farms
where the milk is chiefly used for but
ter making. Many farmers who spend
a good deal Of time riding over the
| country in search of cows for sale.
would find it quite relief if they had
as many fine heifers coming on each
year as would be needed to fill the
places of the old COWS turned off for
beef.
We have tried both buying and rails
| inc COWS, and find the advantages are
| greatly in favor of the latter method of
replenishing stock. A calf that is raised
on the farm, if kindly treated, feels very
much as though she belonged to the
farm, if not to the family. 1t viii be q
very poor fence or a very short pasture
that will tempt her to leave her own
home surroundings. She knows her
own pasture, and her own home, and
becomes very much attached to both,
while the purchased animal is almost
sure to be lonesome and homesick when
first put in with herd of strange and
perhaps vicious animals. Almost every
fresh introduction of strange animal
is followed by a general fight for mas
terry, while the home reared stock usu-
ally settle their matters of this nature
early in life, and without serious injury
to any.
To one who was ever designed by
nature to be farmer, there are few
things that will give greater interest to
his life work than the study of the cattle
or other animals he raises. To begin
at the selection of the parents, the care
of both them and their young, the
watching of the growth and develop
ment from day to day, and from month
to month, the training that is needed to
make the animals trusty and tractable,
and the regard that they will always
manifest for their kind keeper and mas
ter, and finally the full grown and
mature product of all the care and at
tention that has been bestowed, are re-
wards that none can fully appreciate
except those who have had this happy
| experience.
But there is money profit in raising
ones own stock, in addition to the
pleasure to be derived from the opera
ton. If every quart of milk fed, every
five minutes spent, and every pound OF
grass and hay consumed were charged
for at full market rates for material and
labor, it is probable that the profit
would be hard to figure out, but one 8
time spent in feeding calves
might otherwise not be used for any
profitable purposes, and the food that is
given should not be charged at full
market rates, unless due credit is given
for the manure made and saved
from the growing animal. The
actual draught upon the farm
what the body of the animal, would be
worth as fertilizer, if ground up and
spread upon the land. Ii one will pur-
chase and use as many pounGs of ami
NAL dust from our fertilizer makers, for
each animal sold off the farm, as the
animal would make, we can see no rea,
son why the farm should grow poorer
from raising and selling stock. The
cost of raising would then be measured
chiefly by the cost of the labor required
for producing the food the animal con-
,sumes, and that should always be less
than the price it would bring in market.
1t is often said by farmers who raise
their heifers, that they do not feel the
expense incurred, each day or week,
little at time, as they do the payment
of the full price of grown COW when
purchased. Now the truth is, the ex4
pense, as we have shown, may be act
ually less where the animal is reared
where bought. OF course ones locality
has much do with the profits in the case.
Some are so situated that they cannot
conveniently breed their stock, but can
better afford to buy, but many might
raise their own, and would do so, did
they realize howmuch is in favor of the
practice. The indiscriminate slaughter
of our valuable heifer calves for veal,
is most surely a heavy draught upon the
profits that might be made by our dairy
men. Too much of our stock now
comes from sections where very little
effort is made at improvement by weed
ing out inferior animals.
1t is believed by many, and probably
not without reason, that if the best Sc
lections were now made from our best
so-called common calves, and the selec-
ton followed up for a few generations,
the result would be better class of ami
mails for production and profit, than is
obtained from the pure stock, where
every animal, however inferior, is raised
simply because it has a pedigree. Of
course it is understood that our .'com-
mon" stock, at the present time, is al
ready largely made up from good blood,
by the careful crossing it has had at the
hands of breeders. The same principles
that apply to the raising of ones own
COWS will, in measure, apply to the
raising of all the animals required on
the farm. The steers and colts raised
at home, other things being equal, are
always to be preferred to those pur-
chased from strangers. If one finds he
has heifer or steer that is not likely
to come up to expectations, it can be
very cheaply fattened at three years
old, and will make the choicest of beef
for home consumption. There is also
more profit fattening and selling young
animals for beef than in fattening and
selling those that have become so old
that their powers of digestion and as
similation have become greatly i'm
paired, as is usually the case with all
old COWS and old oxen. Young beef