The Vermont watchman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1883-1911, 1889-03-13

Following Mr.. Macpherson, MT.
James Cheesman, secretary of the New
England Creamery Association, spoke
Interestingly on the thorough utilization
of whey, skim milk and buttermilk, for
feeding calves and pigs. AS usually
fed, these foods are not properly ham
died, in order to derive their full feed
ing value. While they contain large
amount of nutriment, they are not per-
feet foods. This is plain when we re-
member that the whole milk is per-
feet food, and that from each of these
wastes important elements of the milk
have been taken away for human use.
In making butter we take out the fat,
in making cheese we take out the ca
seine. The question then is, how may
we cheaply replace these elements of
nutrition?
Knowing the composition of the
milk J." said Mr.. Cheesman, 8" it becomes
easy to initiate it, when we have re-
moved the butter fat for dairy pur-
poses, by using flax-seed with our skim
milk, after allowing the calf to suck
the dam; or still better, to feed it from
birth with the aid of one of the best
constructed calf-feeders, feeding it's
own dams milk for the first ten days at
ninety-eight degrees. After this a
gradual change should be made, by
using quarter of pound of ground
faxseed divided into four feeds a day.
This should be boiled and reduced to a
jelly, and mixed with five pounds of
skim-milk per feed. If the animal has
come from its dam in healthy condi-
ton, it will probably have a good APP
petite and a vigorous stomach. Our
calf needs about two and one-half
pounds of dry matter per day to enable
it to support itself and grow. Twenty
pounds of skim-milk yield two of dry
matter, and we can use six ounces of
flax-seed meal and two of oatmeal or
gluten meal for the balance of the food.
be borne in mind that the meals must
be thoroughly cooked by boiling, and
the skim-milk be heated, and the mix
ture fed at not less than temperature
of one hundred degrees. If the calf is
doing well, the faX-seed may be in
creased at the rate of quarter ounce
every day to provide for its daily in
crease. Let the scales be used often
at least every ten days, so that the
growth may be closely measured, and
the food be increased accordingly.
When the milk falls off, mixture of
three parts flax-seed, one part oatmeal
and one part middlings may be used as
substitute at the rate of one and
three-fifths ounces for every pound of
milk taken away.
"The question of dairy quality is
largely determined by the continuous
growth of the calf through infancy at a
uniform rate. AT six weeks old our
calf should have increased one hundred
and forty-fve or one hundred and fifty
pounds. If it has not already been
taught to nibble grass or outlay, moist
ened and softened with boiling water,
the practice should be commenced now
From this time on, the dry matter of
the milk, which is one-tenth, or the
meals and cut dry fodder, may equal
two and one-fourth to two and one-half
per cent of the live weight of the calf.
Make every effort to secure skim milk,
if only ten pounds per day; for let it al
ways be borne in mind that ten pounds
of skim-milk are equal in feeding value
to eighteen ounces of flax seed when
used alone, and it is worth fully twenty
five per cent more money when used
with flax seed as suggested. The milk
has nutritive ratio of | 10, while
flax seed is ! 40. AS the mean of
these two is | ga, ten pounds of skim
milk and one pound of flax seed made
into Cruel, with nine pounds of water,
gives us the best possible substitute for
full, new milk.
"How much of arrested development
is due to irrational or shiftless modes
of calf-feedingl If the child is father
of the man, how much more true is it
that the calf is parent of the bull or
COW. AT three months old, if we can
still use ten pounds of skim-milk pei
day, we may supplement for flax seed
oatmeal and bran instead of middlings
and continue to gradually reduce the
flax seed with mixture of oatmeal and
and bran, sprinkled over some nicely
cut clover or corn ensilage, roots OF
grass, making the diet as varied as pos
sible, and maintaining steady increase
right along. If we have grown oul
calf we'll from birthweight of seventy
pounds, it should weigh at year old a