BABY BEEF 209 



on account of having been crossed with a milking 

 breed. 



The cow suckles her own calf only, and does it 

 wonderfully well. In the spring, cow and calf are out 

 at grass, and if the grass is not abundant, the cow will 

 require some concentrated food and possibly hay. The 

 calves will soon learn to eat concentrated food with 

 their mothers, and should have any deficiencies in the 

 quantity of milk from the cow made up with cake, at the 

 rate of, say, I Ib. for every 100 Ibs. live weight, so as to 

 keep them growing and thriving as rapidly as possible 

 up to the time they are sold fat during the following 

 year. The animal at eighteen months old may then 

 realise 445. per live cwt, or, say, 18, which is a good 

 price for a fat animal at this age. 



2. The following system is adopted on rich pasture- 

 land where the cow and calf are fattened off together, 

 more especially when the cow is not intended to breed 

 again. Hereford cows, N. Devons, or crosses between 

 these and other beef breeds, are timed to calve about 

 March. The cows may or may not be good milkers, 

 but help the calf on very considerably for a time. The 

 cow receives, say, 4 Ibs. decorticated cotton cake per 

 day, with the result that she fattens rapidly and may 

 be sold off* prime fat about July, when the calf is about 

 four months old. The cow is then sold, and the calf is 

 liberally fed with concentrated food during the autumn, 

 winter, and following spring months. It is summered a 

 second season, and then sold off at sixteen to eighteen 

 months old, at a live weight of about 8 cwts. 



3. A third system is sometimes adopted on good 

 land, of buying heifers due to calve about March. 

 Allow them to suckle own calf for, say, five weeks, 

 when calf is sold off for veal at probably 4. In May 



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