228 Feeds and Feeding. 



355. Colostrum. The first milk yielded by the cow after calv- 

 ing is yellow, thick and viscous, differing from natural milk in 

 its high protein and ash content with low fat and milk sugar. 

 The albumen of colostrum milk may reach 13.6 per cent., while in 

 normal milk it is about one-half of one per cent. This first milk is 

 exceedingly important to the young animal at birth, and should 

 never be withheld from it, for besides yielding nutriment it pos- 

 sesses properties which serve to cleanse the alimentary tract and 

 properly start the work of digestion. (527) 



356. Whole milk. Whole milk is too valuable, in most in- 

 stances, to be used as a feed for farm animals, though the stock- 

 man should never hesitate to supply it when required by very 

 young or valuable animals. Young stock being prepared for 

 exhibition can be forced ahead rapidly by the judicious use of 

 unskimmed milk, and the knowing ones connected with our live- 

 stock exhibitions could tell, if they would, some interesting stories 

 concerning the feeding of milk to animals whose weights, if not 

 their ages, would indicate that they should long before have been 

 weaned. (504, 516, 659, 736) 



357. Skim milk. Because of the protein and ash it carries, 

 skim milk is of high value in building up the muscular and bony 

 framework of young animals. According to Pott, l the horses of 

 the Cooperative Dairy Association of Hamburg are fed large 

 quantities of skim milk and buttermilk with satisfactory results. 

 In eastern Prussia suckling foals are fed buttermilk and sour 

 skim milk. 



Where skim milk is fed care should be exercised in its admin- 

 istration. The vessels which hold the milk and those from which 

 it is fed should be kept clean and wholesome. Milk should 

 always be fed to very young animals at blood temperature, lest 

 on entering the stomach at a lower temperature than maintained 

 by that organ it arrest the progress of digestion. With very 

 young animals skim milk should be fed not less than three times 

 daily. (518-20, 659, 869-71, 886-8, 890) 



358. Buttermilk. This by-product has substantially the same 

 composition as skim milk. Tests at the Massachusetts Station 2 



1 Futtermittel, p. 645. 2 Buls. 13, 18. 



