The Dupuyer acantha. [volume] (Dupuyer, Mont.) 1894-1904, 1898-06-09
Developing Dairy Calves.

IlOW bllhlA VIC Lioih Ia lloGoiS A.
dairy calf, is a question of much i'm
portance. and. in my opinion. one
which will to a great extent determine
the usefulness of the dairy herd, writes
w. J. Gillett in Breeders Gazette. The
trotting-bred colt is gradually educat-
ed up to its work. and it has been we'll
established that better results can be
reached by beginning that education at
a very early age. The y%oungster
to it's lessons from a natural instinct
which is born and bred characteristic.
The development of the dairy calf pre-
sents a similar lesson, and she must DO
trained, not to conflict with natures
laws, but to that end for which she
was born and bred. She is like the colt,
in that by unfavorable training she
may never reach her best, yet that
function, endowed by nature, must crop
out in some form, showing her willing
ness and ability to respond, perhaps
proportionately to her education, to
her true nature. How this education
should be conducted is a question upon
which we are not infallible, and l can
only give a method which has brought
to me very satisfactory and fattering
results. My practice is to allow the
calf to remain with the dam only about
six hours. This for the reason tina the
early removal excites less anxiety OF
the mother, and I think the calf takes
more readily to drinking milk from he
pail. l have roomy box stalls for my
calves and unless crowded for room
each one has a separate stall. Here
the education begins. l feed literally
Of whole milk for the first six weeks,
after which the youngster is gradually
weaned onto sweet skinned milk,
warm as it leaves the separator. AT
this time I think 1t necessary to add
some substitute for the butter fat found
in the SKINNED milk, and for this pur-
pose I use old process oil meal, scalded
to a jelly, and mixed with milk. There
is o developed an appetite for grain,
and while they will at first a
very small quantity, it must be re-
membered that this small amount does
the calf just as much good as a proper
tionately large amount does a matured
animal. I aim to feed all they will eat
of ground oats and wheat bran, mixed
equal parts by measure. They also
have access to good hay, clover pre-
ferred, and a small amount of corn sill
age as soon as they will eat 1t. I pre-
fer skinned milk, oil meal and this
grain ration, because they are bone and
muscle making foods, and I consider
whole milk, containing butter fat
worth 20 cents a pound. an extrava-
CANT food, when we can do the work
effectually with oil meal worth only ]
cent per pound. Bone and muscle and
early maturity are what I seek to de-
velop in the dairy calf, and with the
foods mentioned I push them, realiz-
ing that there is no time in an animals
life when the food cost of 100 pounds
live weight, can be produced SO econ,
omically as when they are young.
But growth is not all to be consid-
cred, and another point Of no less i'm.
portance is health and constitutional,
vigor, which is promoted by good SAM.
tary treatment, free from exposure
cleanliness of pens, plenty of fresh air
sunlight, exercise, occasional grooming
and kind treatment. My fall calves are
kept in their pens until the warm, sun
ny days of early spring, when they art
daily given a frolic in the yards. II
June they are turned into a small pas
ture, but are stabbed nights and inclem
ent days, and are fed throughout thu
summer. Spring calves are stabbed
during the summer, but are given opeI
air exercise. In the winter they ar,
given an hours airing every day, which
develops a fondness to be with the herd
so when turned out in the spring, the!
have learned to rustic among the oldet
ones, take readily to eating grass, ant
soon grow independent of stable feed
Those twelve months of age l thinl
thrive and find sufficient nourishmen
upon good pasture and should be fet
milk until about this age. l desire
calf to always be in good thriving con
dition, but do not encourage any dis
position to taking on flesh, for if beefy
she is out of her place, and we are de
v%eloping a fictitious nature for whicl
she was not created. I believe there |
to-day an existing evil in the Amer
lean show yard, in judges giving to,
much encouragement to beefy dair,
cattle.
Dairying in March.
Dorothy Tucker in Farm Journa