The Marshall republican., 1909-06-04
Raising the Calf on Skim Milk

Raising the Calf on Skim Milk
There was a time when the typi-
renl Missouri farmer laughed at
The idea OF rasing calves in any
other than the natural way. How
ever 8 recently the high price OF
land has made it impossibls 20: any
profit to be made in raising calves
I'm the good old way. Farmers
who have figured carefully on this
proposition have concluded that
land gets above $50 an acre
Sf becomes impossible to keep a
COW for the chance OF a calf. Ten
years ago there were but few
farmers paying any attention to
the sale OF milk or cream. Now
there are fully $4,000 in Missou.i
that are counting on this as part
sof their income. These farme:s
are mostly selling cream 70: but
termaking purposes AMI raising
the calf by hand. There was a
time when it vas thought that a
calf raised on skim milk must nee
20 essarily be stunted in size, unthril
ty in appearance and N that n
respectable farmer would no. wish
to have on his place. 1t Is well
understood now by farmers thai
are selling cream that sJen calves
are entirely unnecessary AMI i'll
fact are not caused by feeding OF
skim milk, but from carrlessn2ss
and ignorance regarding proper
methods OF feeding.
The man who proposes to rai.e
calves on skim milk must, first
OF all, get the idea out of his mind
that such calves are necessarily un
thrifty. He must no. be sltisii-L
with his work until n 10 able TO
raise a calf in this manner that is
good as one raised by is mother.
The feeding OF tne cl.f BY had
should begin at least within three
days after its birth. Soma perfer
to take the calf away from its
mother before il has nurse1 ana
begin feeding by hand at once.
= Others perfer to leave the calf with
the COW from two to foIc days.
They should not be allowed to iun
. longer than that on account o. the
s fact that the older the calf is, the
harder it is to teach /: to drink
from a bucket, and the more the
mother is disturbed when it is re-
moved. The calf should be placed
ont sof the sight of the mother end
allowed to pass over one feeling
period before an attempt is made
10 teach it to drink. 1t is practi-
cally useless to attempt to get a
calf to drink unless it is hungry.
No special difficulty is expert ne
ed in getting the calf to drink from
a pail. The usual method is TO al
low the calf to suck tn, finger
for a short tina unit. it will keep
its. nose in the pal ~litself. 1he milk
fed should be fresh milk from The
mother fed before it has time to
cool. The calf need MOI be fel
more than twice a day, although it
is somewhat better il convenient
TO feed it three times. The feed
ing of the mothers mi should he
continued for about two weeks
time, feeding not over three quart
at a feed or possibly a gallon each
feed to a large calf. At the end
of about two weeks the calf IS
ready to begin the feeding of skin
milk. 1t is best to make the change
from whole milk to skim milk grad
nally, using several days for this
purpose. At the end OF three
weeks the calf should be receiving
nothing but skim mix. 1t is very
important that this skim milk be
fresh, SWEET and warm. The young
calf is a delicate animal for the
first two or three months OF its
life and special attention must be
given to keeping the conditions
just right during this time. There
lis no difficulty in raising the calf
with perfect satisfaction, If the
necessary precautions are observed
1t will not do to think that feeding
sour milk or cold milk or over-feed
ing will not be injurious il
it is only done once. A single mis-
1ake of this kind may cause the
death OF the calf.
Other points regarding this sub
lect will be included in future ar
ticles. C. H. Eckles.
Agricultural College & Experiment
Station, Columbia, Missouri.