The Sauk Centre herald. (Sauk Centre, Stearns County, Minn.) 1886-current, 1904-12-22
CARE OF THE CALF.
Suggestions for Developing the Great
est Possibilities for Dairy
Purposes.

The calf, If it is of the feminine gen
der, is mother to the cow, and for that
matter, grandmother and great-grand-
mother to numerous other cows and sons
and fathers of cows. Great virtue in a
cow is a created, fostered trait. After
the breeder has exhausted his wisdom in
bringing together combinations he be-
lieves will unite tremendously, and the
calf comes into the world as mother Of
the cow, the work of the feeder has be-
gun, and this work must be grasped and
held to intelligently if much of the work
of the breeder is not nullified or at least
endangered.
Some one, some time, has said that
good dairy cows must have good dairy
form. Good dairy form must show its
hip bones, its ribs, it's shoulder blades,
lean and hungry jaw; there must be no
suggestion or evidence of fat. To Sc
cure this angularity of the mature ami
NAL, the calf must never be allowed to
carry flesh. The practical result of lot
of this nonsense is that the calf is often
half-fed for fear it will take notion
to fatten and not fulfill its ancestral
obligations. Being underfed, it is func-
tionally undeveloped, and the function
of continually giving large quantity Of
rich milk being, as have said, an arti-
fetal one, it naturally follows that this
function suffers first, and We have a
weakening of the very qualities we are
DESTROYS of enlarging and more firmly
establishing in our best dairy breeds.
It is true that we generally find the
best cows are of lean and angular con-
formation, carrying no evidence of using
their food for personal adornment, but
their leanness, while doing good work,
is characteristic, an evidence of indi-
viduality, and not of starvation. There
fore, it is the height Of folly to withhold
a sufiiciency Of good feed from the calf
for fear it will fail to grow into lean
cow.
Where there is one breeder, however,
who thus from design keeps his calves
underfed, there are dozens who simply
neglect them. Some argue: "My calves
are well bred. They are registered, and
they trace in direct lines to great ances-
trail performers, and surely the mere
comfortable environments will not alter
their destiny. They will grow up into
good COWS, else what is the use in their
being well bred? When they get to be
COWS then they shall have all the feed
they can eat. We haven't time to fool
with calves"
Others, again, do not seem to think
anything about it. These people have
conceived the idea that it is advisable to
raise a few heifers into cows, and for
this purpose the calves from the sup
posedly best cows are saved and through
summers heat and pests and winters
pests and cold, on scant pasture, in the
lee Of a straw stack, or in some bleak
place contemplatively chewing corn
stalks, they are permitted to grow up
to the dignity of cows; so that the men
who make the statistics tell us that the
average butter production of the cows
in our broad land is about 100 pounds q
year.
The man who starves the calf with a
promise of feeding it full when it be-
comes a cow, says American Dairyman,
very often does not know what full feed
ing is, does not know what balanced
feeding is, and the unfortunate COW
never has a chance to try to do the work
Of good COW.
This pessimistic view of the short
comings Of the cow men in the land is
not a pleasant one, and does not say
much for the thoroughness of them, but
1t is a true one. The average disheart-
ening COWS we have with us in flocks and
droves. They would be better if they
had the chance. For their lack of chance
their breeders and feeders must be re-
sponsible.