184 DOMESTIC ANIMALS, DAIRYING, ETC. 



gorge itself and force the milk on through the stomach before diges- 

 tion can take place, resulting in disorders in the alimentary canal. 

 Great care must be exercised not to overfeed the young calf. (Wis. 

 B. 192.) 



Teaching the Calf to Drink. When the calf is weaned from its 

 mother it is well to let it go 18 to 24 hours without milk in order 

 to have it hungry for its first meal from the pail. A calf is much 

 more tractable when hungry and this may materially aid in keeping 

 the feeder in a better humor and thus insure better care of the 

 calves. The first feed from the pail is a crisis in the calf's life. 

 The calf will not learn to drink any quicker by being forced to 

 breathe the milk into its lungs. The feeder should realize that in- 

 stinct compels the calf to look up for its feed and he must change 

 this by teaching the calf to look down. Some calves are taught to 

 drink from the pail at the first trial with little or no sucking of 

 fingers. Others will require much more persistent effort, and con- 

 siderable patience and common sense is required. The calf will re- 

 spond to kindness, although stubborn at times, and the feeder who 

 will put himself in sympathy with calf nature will find the stubborn- 

 ness of the calf may soon be conquered. 



The Calf on a Milk Diet. The amount of milk fed should be 

 carefully regulated. A good plan with the normal calf is to give 4 

 pounds (2 quarts) of whole milk three times per day, fed sweet and 

 at blood temperature. In the state of nature the calf gets milk con- 

 taining about 3 per cent fat. Our domesticated cows have been bred 

 in some instances to give nearly twice this amount. Milk that is 

 too rich may cause serious trouble from scours, and in feeding such 

 milk care should be exercised to give limited amounts at the proper 

 temperature. The feeding of whole milk should be continued for 

 about three or four weeks, when the number of meals may be re- 

 duced to two per day. From one-half to a pint of skim milk may 

 now be substituted for an equal quantity of whole milk. The 

 amount of skim milk may be gradually increased and the amount 

 of whole milk correspondingly decreased until, at the end of a week 

 or 10 days, the calf is getting all skim milk. Feed the milk sweet 

 and at blood temperature. 



The Calf on Skim Milk. Not over 10 to 12 pounds of milk 

 daily should be fed until the calf is 5 to 7 weeks old. Later the 

 amount may be increased to 14 or 16 pounds and at three months 

 may, though not always, go to about 20 pounds. The amount fed 

 however must be carefully regulated by the ability of the calf to 

 handle it without scouring. The following method has been suc- 

 cessfully used as a guide. 



For the first 100 pounds live weight 10 pounds of skim 

 milk per day; For the second 100 pounds live weight 5 pounds of 

 skim milk per day; For the third 100 pounds live weight 2% 

 pounds of skim milk per day. A calf weighing 80 pounds would be 

 fed, according to this plan, 8 1 /2 pounds (one gallon) of skim milk; 

 a calf weighing 300 pounds would be getting a little over 17 pounds 



