248 A STUDY OF FARM ANIMALS 



One must guard against overfeeding. Ten or 12 pounds 

 a day of milk at first, divided into three feeds for the first 

 week or two, then gradually increasing, so that at six or 

 eight weeks of age some 12 to 15 pounds of skim milk are 

 fed, and this with age increased to 18 to 20 pounds a day, 

 for vigorous, well-grown calves. Skim-milk calves, which 

 should be weaned at four to six months old, grow strong 

 frames, and produce growth more cheaply than with whole 

 milk. Calves should be given bright clover or alfalfa or 

 some other sweet hay to nibble at, and be taught to eat 

 grain. Shelled corn is relished by the young calf, and fits 

 well into a skim-milk diet. At first a mixture of equal parts 



Figure 98. Feeding beef calves. 



corn meal, ground oats, and bran should be fed, after giving 

 the milk. This mixture may later be changed to shelled corn 

 and whole oats, two parts of the former to one of the latter, 

 when the appetite for grain is well established. Thriving 

 calves should gain from one and a half to two pounds daily. 

 Growing breeding cattle should be brought up to mature 

 form with a strong and well-rounded-out frame. As a rule, 

 calves dropped in early spring go through the following 

 winter on a ration of some good roughage, preferably a 



