MILK SUBSTITUTES FOR CALVES 



By J. B. Lindsey, Research Professor, and J. G. Archibald, Assistant 

 Research Professor, of Chemistry^ 



Introduction 



The need for satisfactory milk substitutes for raising calves in the market 

 milk producing sections of New England led tliis Station to investigate the 

 problem early in its history. The need has become more acute with the passing 

 of the years and the great development of the fluid milk trade, so that greater 

 effort has been made at this and other stations to solve the problem. 



The earher work carried on by this Station was devoted to attempts to formu- 

 late a satisfactory calf meal. 2 Many combinations of the various grains and 

 their by-products were tried, and some were developed which gave fairly satis- 

 factory growth. None of these, however, approached skim milk in the produc- 

 tion of growth, and since 1924 the studies have been confined largely to various 

 methods of feeding skim milk powder and buttermilk powder, alone and in 

 combination with other feeds. As these are milk products, in the strict sense 

 of the word they are not milk substitutes; but since the problem is one of local 

 rather than general shortage of skim milk, and since they solve transportation 

 and storage problems inseparable from fluid milk, they are to that extent sub- 

 stitutes for it. Large tonnages of these materials are produced in the butter 

 making and cream selling sections of the country, and the prevailing prices for 

 them have been and still are reasonable (9 to 10 cents a pound) . 



The following pages describe in detail methods used and results secured in 

 feeding the milk powders. A summary of the work appears in Table 1. 



Description of General Method of Feeding and Management 



Practically all calves used in this work have been Holsteins, the majority of 

 them being the natural increase of the station herd, although some were bought 

 outside. At least five calves have been used for each separate experiment. 



The calves in the station herd are left with the dams from 24 to 48 hours, 

 depending on the vigor of the calf. At the end of that time they are removed 

 and taught to drink whole milk from a pail. Occasionally if the dam is a Jersey 

 and known to give very rich milk, the colostrum is milked out and some of it 

 is given to the calf from a pail. This obviates the possibility of gorging and 

 indigestion which is sometimes seen in calves from high testing cows. Calves 

 bought outside are secured as soon as possible after they are dropped, the average 

 age being three to four days. 



Whole milk only, of rather low fat content, is fed for the first week, usually 

 not more than six quarts daily, although occasionally with large and vigorous 

 calves as many as eight quarts have been fed. The process of weaning from 

 whole milk is begun at from one week to ten days of age, one quart of the whole 

 milk being wdthheld and a quart of liquid made with warm water and the material 

 in question given in place of it. This substitution is gradually increased (usually 

 a quart at a time every second day) until the calf is getting only two quarts of 

 whole milk, the balance being the substitute. The amount of liquid fed is 

 increased gradually until at three weeks of age or thereabouts the calf is getting 



• Acknowledgment is made here of the services of J. R. Aleock, foreman at the station barn, who 

 had immediate charge of the work, and whose faithful attention to details contributed to the 

 success of the experiments. 



' For accounts of this work with calf meals, see Mass. Agr. Expt. Sta. Buls. 164 and 223. 



