310 THE HANDBOOK FOR PRACTICAL FARMERS 



allowed to come practically to maturity; as such corn carries a 

 maximum amount of nutrition and the silage will not be so 

 strongly acid. Immature corn makes an acid watery silage, low 

 in feed value. Spoiled feed should always be avoided as it 

 usually results in digestive disturbance and loss of milk flow. 



DAIRY RATIONS 



Good rations for Dairy Cows, of 1,000 lbs. weight, milking 30 to 35 lbs. per day. 



Raising calves. — Nearly all dairy calves are taken from their 

 dams when they are only a few days old and fed from a bucket. 

 Most calves learn to drink readily if started by the time they 

 are a week old. The calf that sucks its mother for a few days 

 usually starts off nicely. "When separated they will usually 

 learn to drink more readily if allowed to get hungry. Care 

 should be taken to avoid over feeding. It is usually better to 

 feed less at a feed and give them three or four feeds per day for 

 two or three weeks. The average young calf should not drink 

 over four or five pounds, of milk at a feed at first. The amount 

 should be increased as the calf grows older, and should be cut 

 down if digestive trouble arises. It is best to feed the new milk 

 from the mother while it is still warm until the calf is three or 

 four weeks old, at which time skim milk can be gradually sub- 

 stituted, taking two weeks for the complete change. 



Calves will usually begin eating grain feed and hay when 

 about three weeks old. Some will begin earlier, and such feed 

 should be supplied to bring about normal development. An 

 excellent grain mixture for calves is oats three pounds, wheat 

 bran three pounds, corn meal three pounds and linseed meal one 



