i'4 DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



DEVELOPMENT OF THE DAIRY HEIFER. 



After weaning at five or six months of age the animal will subsist mainly on 

 roughage. Good pasture in summer is all that is needed to maintain proper growth. 

 Scanty pasture can be helped out by soiling crops, silage^ or grain-feeding. 



In winter, clover or alfalfa hay combined with silage or roots should be fed. 

 A little bran and oats may also be given if it is thought necessary. Linseed-oil 

 meal or oilcake can be used in addition with beneficial results. It improves the 

 general health and tone of the animals. Th<--y need to be kept in good growing 

 condition, and a little flesh will not hurt their development. 



AGE TO BREED CEsxRrxi. 



Breeding too young commonly occurs, and always results in small cows. During 

 the last stages of pregnancy the heifer undergoes a severe strain. In the last three 

 months of the gestation period she does not add anything to her own body even when 

 liberally fed, the food all going to nourish the fo?tus. Usually two and a half years 

 is about the right age to have the first calf. This means that the animal should be 

 bred at about twenty-one months. It may, however, be some months earlier in the 

 case of Jerseys, which are an early maturing breed. The periods of heat or o?strum. 

 when the cow or heifer will take the bull, are about three weeks apart, and usually 

 last for about a day at a time. 



Some breeders prefer to have the first calf dropped at an early age. claiming 

 that it fixes the habit of milk production, and at the same time secures financial 

 returns as early as possible. They then allow eighteen or twenty months between 

 the first and second calves. It is thought that a long first lactation period develops 

 the habit of long and persistent milking. 



GESTATION PERIOD. 



With cattle the normal time between conception and the birth of the calf is 

 nine to nine and a half months. 



MANAGEMENT OF DAIRY CATTLE. 

 DEHORNING CAI/. 



Unless they are pure-bred and likely to be used for show purposes, all calves 

 should be dehorned. Horns are useless and often very harmful appendages on dairy 

 cattle, and there is every reason why they should be removed. 



Dehorning must be done when the calf is three to five days old. The small 

 buds of the future horns can then be felt. The hair is clipped away. A pointed 

 stick of caustic potash is slightly moistened and rubbed on the spot until the skin 

 bleeds slightly. It must not be allowed to run down the face, or the caustic may 

 burn the skin or reach the eyes. If sufficient caustic potash has been applied, a dent 

 will be felt at the spot in a few days, and no horns will ever grow. In some 

 a second application is net- <->me use Gillett's lye for this operation. 



The annoyance of cows by flies is overestimated. Certain proprietary fly mix- 

 tures are used, and some of them are successful in keeping off flies, but this seems 

 to make little difference in the production of the cows. The shortage of feed when 

 the pastures dry up in the heat of summer is the main cause of the lessened milk 

 yield at this time. Flies in the barn can be killed by setting around in shallow pans 

 a mixture of skim-milk two parts and formalin one part. 



A good fly- repellent to be put on the cows with a brush can be made from 1% Ib. 

 resin, 2 cakes soap, % Ib. fish-oil, and water to make 3 gallons. If to be sprayed on, 

 add % pint kerosene. Apply twice weekly. 



