RAISING DAIRY CATTLE 427 



and grinding oats or corn may then be profitable. Such hard grains as 

 barley, wheat, and the grain sorghums should always be ground. 



683. Various concentrates with skim milk. To determine whether any 

 advantage resulted from including a large variety of feeds in the con- 

 centrate allowance for skim-milk calves, Otis at the Kansas Station 12 

 fed one lot of 10 calves equal parts of shelled corn and ground kafir, while 

 another was fed a mixture of 10 parts shelled corn, 10 parts ground kafir, 

 6 parts whole oats, 6 parts bran, 2 parts linseed meal, and 0.5 part dried 

 blood. The corn and kafir mixture produced larger gains than that sup- 

 plying a greater variety of feeds. In another trial no advantage resulted 

 from adding either ground flax seed or a proprietary calf feed to ground 

 kafir for skim milk calves. 



For calves up to 3 or 4 months of age some dairymen advocate feeding 

 ground flax seed, either added directly to the milk or made into a jelly 

 with boiling water and then mixed with the milk, about a tablespoonful 

 of the flax seed being used to each quart. Others report equally good 

 results from starting directly on farm grains. 



Woll and Voorhies carried on 2 trials at the California Station 13 to find 

 whether it was advisable to add linseed meal to a mixture of equal parts 

 ground barley, ground oats, and middlings, or to a mixture of milo and 

 barley. In both trials the calves fed no linseed meal made just as rapid 

 gains as the others and were thrifty. The calves fed linseed meal 

 appeared to have somewhat sleeker coats and more pliable skin, but the 

 difference was not marked. Also the addition of linseed meal made the 

 concentrate mixture more palatable. The general conclusion from these 

 trials was that it is not necessary to make linseed meal, which is usually 

 a high priced feed, a part of the concentrate mixture for thrifty calves 

 that have been successfully changed over to a skim milk diet. 



In another trial Woll and Voorhies found that crushed carob beans 

 and pods were well liked by calves when fed with equal parts ground 

 milo. Thus fed they were fully equal to ground barley, pound for pound. 

 (264) Mixtures of 1 part of either cocoanut meal or dried beet pulp 

 with 2 parts of rolled barley were also very satisfactory for calves fed 

 skim milk. (260, 276) 



"Blackstrap" or cane molasses, which is often a cheap feed in the 

 South, is apt to produce scours when young calves are allowed all the 

 molasses they will eat. However, in trials at the Louisiana Station 14 

 Galloway found that if calves were fed 1 to 2 ounces of molasses, along 

 with concentrates, at the start and the amount of molasses was then 

 increased only about 2 ounces per head daily each week, there was no 

 trouble from scouring. At the end of 21 weeks the calves were safely 

 fed 2 Ibs. of molasses a head daily with an equal weight of concentrates. 

 (280) 



684. Dried blood. Dried blood, or blood meal, is often used as a 

 protein-rich feed for calves raised on milk substitutes and is also fre- 



"Kan. Bui. 126. 18 Cal. Bui. 271. "La. Bui. 180. 



