SEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART VII. 343 



A calf will do the same, a colt will do the same. When the 

 animal is young you must get in your work towards growing; it 

 will want all the feed it can eat, but be careful to give it feed 

 of a growing nature rather than a fattening character. 



Professor, would you take the calf away from the young heifer 

 the same as with the mature cow? 



Prop. Van Pelt : Yes, I think as a matter of fact it is 

 probably more essential at this time than any other, because 

 when a cow freshens her first time she has to be trained. On what 

 you do the first freshening period will greatly depend what you 

 will do after that, because a cow is probably one of the greatest 

 animals of habit, and she will stick the rest of her life to the 

 habits formed when young. If you let the calf run with her 

 the first period of lactation she will fret for it. 



Mr. Wentworth: I thought the young cow's maternal in- 

 stinct was more fully developed and that it was well to let the 

 calf stay with her a couple of weeks. I believe in adhering just 

 a little to that motherly instinct and I believe that helps to improve 

 the milking instinct. I let the calf stay with the cow the first 

 two weeks. The first offspring is just a little nearer to the old 

 cow than anything else. 



Prof. Van Pelt : You are perfectly right in that respect, 

 but at the same time, in allowing a calf to stay there the first two 

 weeks you are doing a thing that is good in one direction, but 

 probably losing some effect you might gain. The course that I have 

 found to be a good thing was to keep the calf in sight of the cow 

 so she sees it and knows it is there the same as though she was 

 with her. One of the most important factors, I consider, is the 

 first thirty days in getting the cow where you want her. When 

 the thirty days have passed if you have not got the cow up to her 

 limit of production it is hard to get her there, and if you allow 

 the calf to work on the cow two weeks you have only two weeks 

 to get in your work. I think that the hardest work a man should 

 put in is the first thirty days. If you get a cow to forty pounds 

 in the first thirty days it is not hard to get down to thirty-five 

 pounds, but if you get her up to fifty pounds she has three times 

 as far to go down you see. 



Another thing, it is hard to feed a cow the first thirty days 

 because she is in a weakened condition. A man has to be very 

 careful in feeding her. There is a certain limit a man comes to 

 in the capacity of a cow. By that I mean the amount of feed 



