The Lamar register., 1905-03-08
The Guernsey Calf.

At a meeting of the Western Guern-
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,
well bedded box stall where the calt
can be kept comfortable. After tae
calf Is born it should be left with the
COW twenty-four or thirty-six hours.
as may seem best, after which II
should be separated from its mother
and kept in stall by itself for a
time. Twelve hours after separation
from its mother It should be offered
milk from pail. but II the calf re-
fuses to drink, hold your temper. and
let 1t go for twelve hours more. and
by this time the calf will. as rule.
be glad to drink. Do not give 1t your
hand to suck unless you have to az
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
good feed for the average sized
Guernsey calf.
Watch your calf closely at all times
II 1t begins to scour reduce the amount
of milk at once and replace 1t with
warm water. SO that you will have
about six pounds of liquid FOR the
calf at each meal.
would say right here II your
calves have scours clean the stalls
daily and give plenty of dry bedding
at all times. Calf stalls should be
cleaned at least every other day even
II well.
At the age of two weeks t.A,re
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 a 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 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 stanchions 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-half
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 II
If placed where they can eat 1t when.
ever they want it.
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, il 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
l enjoy watching them run about the
barn yard with their heads up in the
air.
Milk should be cooled to at least
so degrees as soon as drawn, and
should not be allowed to again rise