224 PRODUCTIVE FEEDING OF FARM ANIMALS 



successive years. At eighteen months of age there was apparently 

 no less constitutional vigor manifested by the animals that were 

 in poor condition at fifteen months of age, due to feeding them 

 substitutes for skim milk, than by the animals that received skim 

 milk, and which were in better condition at that age. 



The Dairy Calf. 7 The main point to be borne in mind in the 

 feeding and the development of the dairy calf is to guard against 

 an accumulation of fat in the animal, which would seriously inter- 

 fere with the usefulness of the future cow in the dairy. Feeds of a 

 fattening tendency are, therefore, to be avoided, and only such 

 feeds are given as will develop a vigorous muscular frame and bone 

 structure. With this end in view, the feeding of full milk to the 

 dairy calf is discontinued after a couple of weeks, or before, in case 

 of milk rich in butter fat, and separator skim milk is fed in its 

 place, the change from one feed to another being made gradually, 

 so as not to give rise to digestive disorders. The equivalent of 

 about two ounces of flaxseed meal, boiled into a jelly with water 

 (one part meal to six of water), is fed daily with the skim milk. 

 At three or four weeks of age, other feeds are given, preferably 

 oats, wheat middlings, or a mixture of both. Some feeders report 

 good results from feeding farm-grains with skim milk after the first 

 week. The calves will gradually learn to eat hay, if it be placed 

 before them; a fine quality of clover or alfalfa hay or any good 

 early-cut mixed hay is generally reserved for this purpose. The 

 object in view throughout the first year should be to keep calves 

 in a healthy growing condition, and to feed plenty of hay so as 

 to develop the digestive apparatus of the calf, along with easily 

 digestible feeds that will cause a rapid, normal growth without de- 

 position of unnecessary body fat. Other desirable feeds for older 

 calves than those mentioned are mill feeds, small grains, especially 

 barley, oil meal, brewers' and distillers' grains, and malt sprouts. 

 Cotton-seed meal, on the other hand, should be fed only sparingly, 

 or not at all. 



Fall calves, as a rule, are to be preferred to spring calves on 

 dairy farms, both because they can receive better care and attention 

 during the winter months than in summer, and because they will 

 go on pasture in the spring at an age when their digestive apparatus 

 is developed so that the green grass may form their main feed, 

 supplemented with some grains when pastures are scant. The time 



7 Adapted from an article by the author, on " Feeding Dairy Cattle," 

 in Cycl. Amer. Agr., vol. iii. 



