RAISING DAIRY CATTLE 431 



disease-producing bacteria, thereby lessening trouble from scours and 

 preventing the possible introduction of tuberculosis and other diseases. 21 

 Whey and buttermilk should likewise be pasteurized before being fed. 



690. Feeding concentrates. When 1 to 2 weeks old, the calf should 

 be taught to eat concentrates. Such feeds as corn meal, ground oats 

 with the hulls sifted out, barley meal, kafir meal, wheat bran, red dog 

 flour, and linseed meal, alone or in mixture, may be placed in the bottom 

 of the pail after the calf has finished drinking its milk. Some add the 

 concentrates to the milk, but this is inadvisable as the meal is then less 

 thoroly mixed with the saliva. The addition of such concentrates as bran 

 or linseed meal to the farm grains may be helpful in teaching the calf to 

 eat. The dull calf may be taught to eat the meal by rubbing a little on 

 its muzzle when it is thru drinking milk. Having learned the taste of the 

 meal, the calf should thereafter be fed its allowance dry from a con- 

 venient feed box. Until it becomes accustomed to the new article of diet, 

 a supply of meal may be kept before it. After this, however, only as 

 much should be fed as will be eaten up, and the feed box should be 

 cleaned out regularly. At 6 weeks the calf will usually eat 0.5 Ib. of 

 concentrates a day; at 2 months, about 1 Ib. ; and at 3 months, 2 Ibs. 

 Unless it is desired to push the animal ahead rapidly not over 2 or 3 Ibs. 

 need be fed the skim-milk calf up to 6 months. 



691. Concentrates for skim milk calves. It has been pointed out pre- 

 viously in this chapter that entirely satisfactory results are secured 

 when only farm-grown grains are fed as the concentrates, if the calves 

 have plenty of skim milk. (682) A mixture of equal parts of corn and 

 oats is often fed skim milk calves. However, such concentrate mixtures 

 as the following are somewhat more palatable and are preferred by many 

 dairymen. It will be noted that these consist most largely of the cereal 

 grains. 



(1) Corn, 3 parts; oats, 3 parts; wheat bran, 1 part; linseed meal, 1 

 part. (2) Equal parts oats, bran, and corn or ground barley. (3) Oats, 

 5 parts ; corn, 1 part ; bran, 3 parts ; linseed meal, 1 part. 



The Guernsey Breeder's Journal, 22 on gathering the experience of over 

 100 breeders of Guernsey cattle, found that the following were used as 

 supplements to skim milk : 



Thirteen fed a mixture of equal parts oats and wheat bran; 11, a 

 mixture of 5 parts oats, 3 parts bran, 1 part linseed meal, and 1 part corn 

 meal; 8, whole oats; 7, ground oats; 7, oats, bran, and linseed meal; 6, 

 corn and oats ; 6, the concentrate mixture given the dairy herd ; 5, corn 

 meal, oats, and bran ; 4, corn meal, bran, and linseed meal ; and others, 

 mixtures of wheat middlings and linseed meal, of corn meal and linseed 

 meal, of hominy and bran, and of corn and bran. 



The feeder thus has an extended list of successful mixtures from which 

 to select the one most economical for his local conditions. 



2l Dean, Ontario Agr. Col. Rpt. 1899; Otis, Kan. Bui. 126. 

 "Guernsey Breeder's Jour., May 1915, p. 38. 



