CHAPTER XII 



BREEDING AND MANAGEMENT OF CALVES 



Management of Cattle Calves Methods of Rearing Estimated Cost 

 of Rearing and Feeding Diarrhoea White Scour and its Contagious 

 Form Castration Treatment of the Growing Calf Ringworm 

 Lice Warts and Angleberries Method of Throwing Speying. 



IN a system of good management it is essential to employ 

 stock of good quality, though for ordinary purposes not 

 necessarily belonging to the strains of blood most run upon, 

 and, consequently, commanding the highest prices. Dealing 

 in fancy animals and fancy prices, is more or less a special 

 business involving some degree of speculation, and requiring 

 special skill and an abundance of spare capital, such as the 

 ordinary farmer does not possess. Much well-bred stock 

 does not come within this category, but is of a kind suitable 

 for a farmer working on ordinary commercial lines. 



A calf should have its mother's milk, and that only, for 

 the first five to eight days. " Beastings " or colostrum the 

 milk secreted during the few days after calving is the best 

 food for the calf, and it is unfit for other purposes. It 

 frequently contains streaks of blood, especially in the case of 

 heifers of the first calf. Butter can be made from "green 

 milk " rather sooner than cheese, but it is a mistake to use 

 milk from newly calved cows for any other purpose than that 

 of feeding their calves, until it becomes normal in composition 

 and will boil without coagulation. 



Analysis of first-day Colostrum and average cows' milk : 



Colostrum Cows' Milk Solids 



(ist Day). (Average). (Normal Milk) 



per Gallon. 



Water . . 787 87-30 



Butter-fat . 4-0 3-75 



Milk Sugar . 1-5 4-75 



Albumen . 7-5 0-50 



Casein . . 7-3 3-00 



Mineral ash . i-o -70 



100-0 100-00 



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