32 BETTER DAIRY FARMING 



It may also aid under such conditions to cut down the total amount 

 of milk fed, or even omit one feeding entirely. The best cure for 

 such troubles is to give the digestive system a rest. (62) 



Xo increase in the total milk fed should be made during the 

 period of change. After the latter has been completed the amount 

 fed may be increased as appetite and condition allow. At one 

 month of age a calf will take 12 to 15 pounds of milk a day; at two 

 months, 15 to 18; and at three months and thereafter, 18 to 25 or 

 even more. By the third month the calf is usually consuming 

 considerable grain and hay, and from then on it can get along with- 

 out increasing the skim milk, provided the supply of it is limited. 



58. Feeding hay. — The calf will begin to eat other food be- 

 sides milk at three to four weeks of age. The best roughage for 

 the calf is second or third cutting alfalfa or the second cutting of 

 clover. This roughage will supply lime and vitamines, other kinds 

 will not. Some calves will eat so much of the legume roughage at 

 the beginning that scouring results. Thus it is safer to start the 

 calf on good mixed hay and change to clover or alfalfa after a few 

 weeks. If legume hay is not available, of course the best other 

 hay that can be secured must be used. The calf should receive all 

 the hay he will eat, for in addition to its food value, the roughage 

 develops the digestive apparatus — one of the essentials for 

 capacity in the mature animal. 



59. Feeding grain. — At about the time that the calf begins 

 to eat hay he will also eat a little dry grain. The following mixture 

 has been used by us with much satisfaction: 



100 lbs. wheat bran 



100 lbs. ground oats 



100 lbs. corn meal or hominy 



50 lbs. oil meal 

 The calf should receive all he will eat of this mixture from a 

 feed box nailed to the side of the pen. The grain should never 

 be mixed with the milk or fed in the pail from which the milk is 

 taken. At three or four weeks of age some of the grain mixture 

 may be put in the calf's mouth following the feeding of the milk. 

 He will soon learn to like it and will begin to eat it out of the 



