38 BETTER DAIRY FARMING 



Raising Calves with a Limited Amount of Milk 



On many farms there is need for a method of raising calves 

 where only a small amount of milk can be used. Otherwise the 

 farmer cannot raise his own stock and thus breed up his herd. 

 One method of doing this is to substitute a special ration fed as a 

 gruel at the time the change is ordinarily made to skim milk. 

 Another method is to continue the calf on whole milk to two or 

 three months of age and then use dry grain and hay as the only 

 feeds. 



67. Amount of whole milk necessary. — Where the latter 

 system is practiced the calf is fed during the first two or three 

 months similarly to the method described for rearing on skim milk 

 except that whole milk is used. The time of cutting out the milk 

 is governed by the thrift iness of the calf. It is usually not best to 

 attempt it before two months of age and for the average calf it 

 is better to wait until the middle of the third month, to give the 

 animal as good a start as possible. The milk should be removed 

 gradually taking about ten days for its completion. With the 

 removal of the milk the grain feeding must be increased. The calf 

 should receive all it will clean up. The same is true of the hay. 

 It is essential that the hay be clover or alfalfa of the best possible 

 quality. Professor C. H. Eckles of the Minnesota Experiment 

 Station has reported a series of trials of raising calves according 

 to this system. The calves were only a little below normal size at 

 six months of age and were entirely up to normal at eight months. 



Raising Calves on Calf Meal Gruels 



The calf meal gruel method involves the substitution for milk, 

 after the calf is a few weeks of age, of a gruel, consisting princi- 

 pally of a grain mixture combined with water in such a way as to 

 come as close as possible to the chemical composition of milk. 

 There have recently been raised on a calf meal at Cornell Univer- 

 sity calves comparing favorably at 6 months of age with those of 

 similar age raised on skim milk. From our experience we have no 

 reason to believe that calves so raised in a proper manner suffer 



