602 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



become entirely too cold before the calf can consume it through the feed- 

 er. The feeder is difficult to keep clean, and a person will need a dozen 

 in order to keep himself busy feeding calves. Four to five buckets will 

 keep one man busy. We weighed our calves under experiment once 

 every week, and found that there was no difference in gains between those 

 which consumed their milk slowly through the calf-feeder and those 

 which consumed it rapidly from the pail. 



The Necessity of Feeding Some Whole Milk. The calf is unable 

 to handle hay or grain until it is a week or ten days old. During this 

 period it is not wise to try to feed skim-milk. At first the whole 

 milk should be fed three times a day — four pounds in the morning, two- 

 pounds at noon, and four pounds at night, at blood temperature. In 

 about a week or ten days the calf can be fed twice daily. During this. 

 time the allowance of whole milk can be gradually increased to about 

 twelve pounds. The amount depends somewhat on the individuality of 

 the calf and its ability to handle increased quantities. 



Changing from Whole to Skim-milk. The stomach of the young, 

 calf is very delicate, and all changes should be made gradually. When 

 about two weeks old, the calf, if a strong, vigorous one, can be gradually 

 changed to skim-milk. During the first day decrease the amount of the 

 whole milk one pound and add one pound of skim-milk, and so on each 

 day until the change is complete. Previous to this the calf should have 

 a little grain (corn or Kafir-corn meal, or a mixture of both) placed ia 

 its mouth immediately after drinking its milk. In this way it gets a 

 taste of the grain and will soon go to the feed-boxes and eat with a relish. 



After the change to skim-milk is completed the amount may be gradu- 

 ally increased as fast as the calf is able to consume it without scouring. 

 Care must be taken not to increase too rapidly. The calf is a greedy 

 animal, and will appear more hungry after drinking its milk than before^ 

 and if given too much it will soon be on the sick-list. The milk fed 

 should be weighed or measured at each feeding. Our experience has 

 been that a calf from three to five weeks of age can be fed from ten to 

 twelve pounds daily; from seven to eight weeks old, fourteen to six- 

 teen pounds and when from three to five months of age can be fed eight- 

 een to twenty pounds of milk. The milk should always be fed warm 

 and sweet. Next to overfeeding, there is probably nothing which 

 causes greater difficulty with the hand-fed calves than feeding sweet 

 milk one meal and sour milk the next. 



