THE BEEF CATTLE INDUSTRY 



377 



cool down to a temperature of 100° E. 

 before feeding. 



English practices — In several coun- 

 ties of England calves are left with the 

 cows for about two weeks, after which 

 they are taught to drink first whole 

 fresh milk and then whole and skim 

 milk mixed. At the end of about a 

 month, the calf receives only skim milk 

 with oatmeal, barley meal or linseed 

 meal. Small quantities of hay are also 

 placed within reach of the calves and 

 they are given, in addition, chopped tur- 

 nips, carrots or other vegetables. 



In Ayrshire, calves which are intended 

 for dairy cows are fed on whole milii 

 for the first four to six weeks, allowing 

 them about 4 quarts a day, the quantity 

 lessened as soon as there is plenty of 

 green grass to eat. Grain is added at 



that a very small quantity of mixed 

 meal be added to the milk from the time 

 the calf is four or five days old. If 

 oatmeal or linseed meal is used, it seems 

 to act as a tonic and helps to prevent 

 scouring and other digestive troubles. 

 Objections to natural feeding — One 

 of the chief objections to the custom of 

 allowing calves to suck the cows until 

 they are a month old, or more, is that 

 it is then much more difficult to wean 

 them and they lose flesh while they are 

 being taught to drink. In general, the 

 older the calf the more difficult it is 

 to teach him to drink from a pail, so 

 that the practice of feeding him from a 

 pail at the end of the first week has 

 abundant justification. Calf rearing is 

 never successful unless the calves are 

 kept in a healthy, growing, progressive 



Eig. 259 — ROUGH FEEDERS ON AN AVERAGE FARM 



the age of about four weeks. With the 

 milk other feeds are given, such as hay 

 tea, linseed jelly, oat and wheat meal 

 porridge, etc. Another method of feed- 

 ing, which has given success in Ireland, 

 consists in making a thick soup of lin- 

 seed meal and bean or pea meal, which 

 is mixed with milk in such a way as to 

 make a material of about the consist- 

 ency of mucilage. 



In the northern countries of England 

 the common practice prevails of feeding 

 calves equal parts of milk and sweet 

 whey at a lukewarm temperature. The 

 only objection to this feed is that it is 

 apt to cause scouring. In Norfolk, 

 calves are frequently raised on skim 

 milk, to which a little wheat flour is 

 added. They are also allowed to have 

 a small amount of chopped turnips and 

 a bit of hay. Some of the most suc- 

 cessful English beef raisers recommend 



state, and any check which may take 

 place in growth is likely to result in a 

 stunting from which it may never en- 

 tirely recover. 



Rice meal was compared in Alabama 

 with corn meal for calves, the calves 

 being allowed small quantities of Japan 

 clover hay. It was found somewhat dif- 

 ficult to induce the calves to eat a suf- 

 ficient quantity of rice meal, and it 

 therefore became necessary to substitute 

 bran for one-third of the rice meal. The 

 calves which received rice meal made an 

 average daily gain of 1.6 pounds, while 

 those which were fed corn meal gained 

 1.9 pounds a head daily. 



Whey is commonly utilized for both 

 calves and pigs. A comparison of whey 

 and skim milk was made in Kansas by 

 Otis. In this test it was found that 

 whey produced poor gains and that the 

 returns given for the feed consumed 



