Lyon County times. [volume] (Silver City, Nev.) 1874-1907, 1894-01-13
The Management of Young Cows.

whose calves are supposed to be val
liable on account of their breeding,
are often greatly injured by the neg
lect to promptly take away their
calves. 1t is often assumed that
because COW only produces milk
enough to support her calf no injury
can result from letting them run
together, so that the calf may suck
the COW whenever the sense of hun
ger impels it to do so. There could
not be greater error, especially if
the COW is intended for the dairy.
If she is destined to be breeder Of
beef or fancy animals it is of less
importance that the calf be taken
away, but even then, unless there
are exceptional reasons for another
course, it is the best economy every
way. The highly-organized, we'll
bred cows of the present day are
susceptible to great many infu-
ences that their earlier progenitors
were not. But their improvement
may not be relaxed for single sea-
son without more or less serious in
jury.
Perhaps the first and most i'm
portant reason for taking the calf
away from its dam at an early day
is the necessity for letting the udder
be periodically filled that it may
become permanently distended be-
fore the period of growth is fully
past. The secretion of milk to feed
its young is natural function of
the animal; the storing of it to be
drawn periodically by man is alto
gether an artificial one. In the one
case no udder development is re-
quired; in the other it becomes alb
solutely indispensable. The we'll
bred milking heifer will, it is true,
distend her udder to some extent
before calving, but its form and ca
pacity can only be perfected under
a protracted season of milk produc-
ton.
A second reason, and with some
animals it seems the most import
ant, is that at no time in the whole
being of the animal is it SO capable
of receiving favorable impressions.
The cow is largely creature of
habit. Its instincts have been bred
and educated out of it and cultiva-
ted habits have taken their place.
If the young COW is MIXED by hand
from the very start she never knows
, any reason why she should not be.
Those that have been sucked for a
period rarely yield to hand milking
without more or less trouble, and
sometimes it is SO lasting and so
annoying as to greatly impair their
value. A heifer of the highest
promise has often been entirely ruin
ed for dairy purposes by being per-
mitted to run with the calf the first
season. No after training was suffi-
Gent to overcome the Objectionable,
often vicious habits acquired
There are often very good cows
among the large herds on the
ranches and in other breeding dis
tricts, but it is almost impossible to
reclaim one of them on account OF
the habit of "giving down" their
milk only when their calves are by
their sides. To dairvman accus-
toned to milking a herd of we'll
trained cows there is no more anus
ing or annoying sight, as he is a
looker-on or party in interest, than
the performance of getting share
of the milk from "a dairy" of such
COWS in the neighborhood of some
of the border cities. The calves are
kept shut up as teasers until milk
ing time, and then it is hand-to-
hand fight between the mixer and
the calf for the larger share. Some
times little art of some kind en-
ables the mixer to get the milk
without an actual strife with the
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