Manchester Democrat. [volume] (Manchester, Iowa) 1875-1930, 1906-07-18
A Balanced Ration for the Calf.

Calves that will be steers and
milk COWS two years from now are
being fed by the thousands on skim
milk. What kind of steers they
will make and what kind of cows
they will become depends partly on
the breeding, but to quite con
siderable extent on the kind of a
ration they are fed for the next
three or four months.
There is nothing better than the
ration which nature provided, but
unfortunately the farmer on one
hundred dollar land cannot afford to
feed his calves in natures way. As
a rule that would cost him more
than they are worth on the market.
In the dairy sections calves are
raised on skim-milk. and the result
will depend not on the amount of
skim-milk that is fed, but on the
way in which it is balanced. For
the first ten days the calf should
have nothing but the mothers milk.
For tho next ten days or two weeks
it should gradually be put upon a
skim-milk ration. AS soon as it has
a grain and grass stomach it should
be given all the grass it wants, or
good, bright clover and timothy
hay, and these feeds balanced up
with carbonaceous feed. The best
and the cheapest is corn meal for
the young calf, and shelled corn for
the calf six weeks old and over.
Why? In milk nature provides a
tL.-ls...~s,A- Ls., 1s........1s, ~
through the separator, or removing
the cream in any other way, you
take out the fat. This must be
supplied, and the carbohydrates Of
corn prove an excellent substitute
for the fat of the milk.
This milk should be fed as sweet
as possible and about the temperature
of the COW, or about 100 degrees. 1t
should be fed in clean throughs. 1t
can then be balanced up with she'll
ed corn fed in clean trough.
Many farmers, Of course, shake
their heads and bring out the old slw
when creameries cone in good
calves go out" but it is none the
less true that hundreds ard thou
sands of farmers have shown them
selves fully capable of developing a
calf raised on skim-milk that can
not be distinguished in the feed LOT
from the calf that has run with the
COW and been fed in NATURES way
The mistake farmers make in rails.
ing skim-milk calves are feeding the
skim-milk sweet one day and sou1
another, feeding irregularly, and
feeding it without balance. Il
the calf does not do well they double
the milk ration, and it natural.
ly does worse; becomes spindle
shanked and pot-bellied; and after
two OF three months treatment o.
this kind cannot by any means, how
ever skillful, be developed into {
first class steer.
Another mistake they make is il
feeding oil meal as a balance fol
skim milk. Instead of correcting
the balance, it makes it more un
balanced still, for skim-milk and OF
meal are both highly albuminous o.
nitrogenous products. The skim
milk itself has this element in ex
cess. Neither will oats or barley O
wheat, no matter how manipulated
balance the ration.
Skim-lnilk can be balanced b,
corn or Kaffir corn. These are tn
cheapest and also the best. There
fore if your calf is not doing well
don't double the amount of skim
milk and make it do worse, but di
vide the skim-milk between tn
calf and the pig, and divide the pig
corn between the pig and the cali
For corn alone is as unbalanced
ration for the young and GROWN;
pig as skim-milk for the calf. 0!
the ordinary farm the calf need
what the pig gets in excess; and o
: the average farm where dairying j
followed the pig needs what the cal
; gets in excess. Divide their rations
and you will benefit both. Wallace
Farmer.