340 Feeds and Feeding. 



should not exceed 18 pounds daily until the calf is five weeks 

 old, and only in rare cases should an amount beyond 24 pounds 

 be given. Many calves are destroyed by being overfed with skim 

 milk by persons who act as though they thought to make up the 

 lacking qualities of this feed by giving more of it. Young calves 

 should be fed not less than three times daily until four or five weeks 

 old. The milk should be heated to blood temperature, and the 

 careful feeder will use a thermometer to ascertain the proper degree. 



Where calves do poorly on skim milk, the results are charge- 

 able to the abuse of that feed. Too large a supply of milk, in- 

 frequent and irregular feeding, milk too cold for digestion, and 

 sour feeding-pails, are the causes of nine-tenths of the trouble. 



The calf is best taught to drink by using the fingers. The 

 various devices for calf feeding are usually unsatisfactory and 

 often dangerous because of accumulations of milk in concealed 

 places, which cannot be washed out, but remain to become 

 putrid and disease-breeding. The calf is taught to eat grain by 

 placing a handful of whole or ground oats, shorts or other feed 

 in its mouth immediately after supplying the milk. Allow no 

 more grain in the feed box than will be wholly consumed between 

 feeds. Hay from early -cut grass or clover should also be supplied. 

 Calves should be tied if they annoy one another. Properly fed 

 on skim milk, with oil meal, corn, oats or other grain additional, 

 the careful feeder can count on a gain with calves of from one 

 and a half to two pounds per day for the first four months. 



In rearing calves intended for beef production there is little 

 danger in crowding them rapidly, every pound gained bringing 

 the animal so much nearer the desired end. The dairy calf should 

 be fed in such a manner as to insure a steady growth without 

 tendency to become fat. The food should be nutritious, but not 

 concentrated in character. Clover hay, corn stover, and silage 

 without much corn in it, with a little straw, should constitute the 

 roughage. Bran, barley and oats are excellent for the small 

 allowance of grain required. A calf intended for a model dairy 

 cow should not gain over one and one-half pounds per day for the 

 first four months and less thereafter. 



528. Whey. In the cheese districts, calves are frequently raised 

 jipon whey, which feed is a poor substitute for even skim milk. 



