Rosebud County news. [volume] (Forsyth, Mont.) 1901-1906, 1905-03-09
The Guernsey Calf.

al meeting OIL the western Guoru'
sey Breeders Association, N. L..
Welles said:
Let us start at the very beginning
At the time, the COW is due to calve
she should be placed in a clean. dry
we'll bedded box stall where the calf
can be kept comfortable. After the
calf is born it should be left with the
COW twenty-four or thirty-six hours
as may seem best, after which it
should be separated from it's mother
and kept in stall by itself for
time. Twelve hours after separation
from it's mother it should be offered
milk from a pail, but if the calf re-
fuses to drink. hold your temper, and
let it go for twelve hours more, and
by this time the calf will, as a rule,
be glad to drink. Do not give it your
hand to suck unless you have to as
last resort. At first four and one
half pounds of new milk fresh from
the COW, with one and one-half pounds
of warm water additional, will make
a good feed for the average sized
Guernsey calf.
Watch your calf closely at all times
to see that it's bowels are all right
II 1t begins to scOur reduce the amount
OF milk at once and replace it with
warm water, so that you will have
about six pounds of liquid FOR the
calf at each meal
| would say right here if yom
calves have, scours clean the stalls
daily and give plelty of dry bedding
at all times. Calf stalls should be
cleaned at least every other day even
if we'll.
At the age Of two weeks there
should be placed within their reach
some fine hay that they can eat at
will. The hay should be put in fresh
at least every other day up to the
age of five weeks, after which time
they should have fresh hay daily, and
not have chance to muss over more
than they need. At the age Of four
weeks I would advise putting some
whole oats where they can eat them
at will. They will soon learn to make
way with lot of them, and I know
of no better way to dispose of your
oats.
We will imagine the calf is now
six weeks old and doing finely, so we
| will reduce the amount of new milk
one pound. and add the same amount
of skim milk. We will continue to
| change gradually from new milk to
skim milk until the calf is eight weeks
old, when he will be on skim milk
with some kind of meal in it, such as
old process oil meal, to help make a
complete food. We will now put the
calves together up to the number of
ten or twelve, and have stanchiuns to
put them in at feeding time, so that
they will be unable to- suck one an
other, and it is also handy to feed
them milk and grain after this age
in stanchions. The calves should now
have all the good, clean water they
want once a day. In summer they
should be offered water sooner than at
age of eight weeks. The grain ration
will not consist of one and one-halt
pounds oats and little bran. They
should be fed hay twice daily after the
age of two and one-half months, and
they should have free access to salt
You will find they will eat lot of it
if placed where they can eat it when
ever they want it.
l think it very important they
should be turned out in the sunshine
for at least two or three hours every
pleasant day, summer or winter, if the
temperature is not lower than 10
above zero and they are over two
weeks old. They enjoy it, and to wan
der from the subject little will say
enjoy watching them run about the
barn yard with their heads up in the
| air.