76 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



is developing her own body — or would, if slie liad enougli to 

 eat — faster than at any time in her life after babyhood. 

 Probably it would be a good thing if she did not come in until 

 two and a half years old, and had a little more time to 

 develop ; but when nature steps in to freshen for the first time, 

 and says, " Here is a great task ; you must not only go through 

 the ordeal, but you must give milk," the animal is developing 

 faster than at any other time. That is when she needs her 

 food, and just the same food that she would need if she were 

 giving milk, only not quite so much. Balance the ration a 

 little more carefully than you would when she is giving milk. 

 This danger of caked udder is an old tradition. Of course if 

 you feed an unbalanced ration you will be likely to have 

 trouble with the udder when the heifer freshens. That is 

 because the food and care are not such as to produce milk ; 

 when she has a quantity of milk she will have no trouble. 

 That is the business of the heifer, of her udder and of every 

 function of her body ; it isn't to cake and swell, — that is due 

 to lack of care on the part of her owner. 



Ten days or two weeks before the heifer freshens, be care- 

 ful; do for that heifer mother just what you would do for the 

 human mother ; diet at that time ; have energy, vitality, and 

 enough fat on the body two weeks before she freshens so that 

 you can diet her for two weeks and she will still have enough 

 vitality to go through that trying ordeal. That is the way to 

 avoid caked udders and retention of the afterbirth, and all 

 those kindred troubles which injure the animal for that year. 

 She cannot get back to where she originally was, if she has 

 any of those troubles at parturition. 



IsTow feed her light for the next four weeks. I do not like 

 the Holstein scheme of testing cows within two weeks after 

 they freshen. That is the time they will make the most milk, 

 but I believe it is fundamentally and constitutionally wrong. 

 We put enough fat onto the animal prior to her calving so that 

 we can let her shrink for a month. The man who has allowed 

 his heifer to calve when she is poor, is forced to feed her to 

 save her life, and trouble frequently follows. She ought not 

 to be returned to her full feed until she has been in milk a 

 month. 



T want to give my remedy foi* almost everything, at parturi- 



