THE BEEF CATTLE INDUSTRY, 



379 



at the end of six weeks. Corn oil of- 

 fered some difficulty. At first an at- 

 tempt was made to prepare a mixture 

 of the corn oil and milk containing 3 

 per cent of fat. It was found neces- 

 sary, however, to reduce the fat to 2 

 per cent, since the oil proved too laxative. 



During 1 this experiment it appeared 

 that linseed meal is an excellent mate- 

 rial for replacing cream in milk and 

 is very economic as compared with the 

 other feeds. Germ oil meal gave about 

 as good results as linseed meal, and is, 

 therefore, recommended as a calf food. 



In order to attain their greatest de- 

 velopment, calves require mill: for a 

 period of four or five months. After 

 that time milk may be entirely omitted 

 from the ration and the grain ration 

 may be increased. It is presupposed 

 that calves begin to receive grain at the 

 age of two or three weeks in addition 

 to skim milk. To the grains which have 

 already been mentioned for this purpose, 

 we may add kafir corn meal, which has 

 been found to give excellent results in 

 Kansas as a substitute for corn meal. 



In Iowa, the use of whole milk gave 

 somewhat better gains in calves than did 

 a mixture of skim milk and flaxseed. 

 The whole milk calves, however, re- 

 ceived a more decided check in their 

 growth at weaning time than did the 

 skim milk, calves. Partly in conse- 

 quence of this fact the cost of gain on 

 whole milk was 7.6 cents a pound, 

 while on skim milk and flaxseed it was 

 5 cents a pound. Corn meal, at later 

 tests in the Iowa station, proved to be 

 the best of all grains as a cream sub- 

 stitute. 



Similar residts were obtained in 

 Nebraska. At the end of a year whole 

 milk calves could not be distinguished 

 from skim milk calves, and the profits 

 were much larger in the latter than in 

 the former. During the first week or 

 two, the whole milk calves appeared to 

 be in the lead, but the skim milk calves 

 soon equaled them in growth. The 

 Minnesota experiment station found 

 that the cost of raising calves on whole 

 milk was three times that of raising 

 them on skim milk and ground flaxseed. 

 In Massachusetts, good results have been 

 obtained from the use of an emulsion 

 of skim milk and oleomargarine, with 

 an addition of a little brown sugar. 

 Calves will make good gains on skim 

 milk alone, but when pork is high and 



veal low, there is greater profit in feed- 

 ing skim milk to pigs than calves. 



Cream substitutes — The proposition 

 of feeding calves on skim milk and 

 using some cream substitute involves 

 the question of the relative profit from 

 milk in the form of butter and veal or 

 beef. In Pennsylvania, it was found 

 that milk gave better returns in veal 

 than in butter. When calves were com- 

 pared with pigs in regard to their abil- 

 ity to utilize skim milk, it was found 

 that young calves were about equal to 

 pigs. In fact, in Utah, calves up to the 

 age of three and one-half months re- 

 quired less milk and corn for a pound 

 of gain than did pigs; but after five or 

 six months pigs took the lead in this 

 respect. 



In Wisconsin, experiments have been 

 carried on in making curds from sweet 

 skim milk by heating it to a tempera- 

 ture of 90° F. and adding a liquid ren- 

 net extract. This material produced 

 excellent gains in calves. 



We have already recommended that 

 milk constitute a part of the ration of 

 calves until they are four or five months 

 old. Some Canadian feeders, however, 

 have found that skim milk is not strictly 

 indispensable after the calves are two 

 months old. In some of the southern 

 states cottonseed meal has been used as 

 a cream substitute in feeding calves 

 and has given excellent results. In 

 Mississippi, cottonseed meal was found 

 to be the cheapest grain which could be 

 used for this purpose. If fed in too 

 large quantities, however, it may kill 

 the calves. 



In France, a large variety of feeding 

 stuffs have been used as cream substi- 

 tutes, including potato starch, cooked 

 flaxseed, rice flour, barley meal, malt 

 flour and oleomargarine. Quite satis- 

 factory results in using cream substi- 

 tutes have also been obtained in Hol- 

 land, Sweden and other European coun- 

 tries. 



Recently Klein has recommended the 

 addition of small quantities of formalin 

 to milk as a treatment for scours. In 

 order to produce the right results it is 

 not necessary that the formalin be used 

 in greater strength than one part to 

 4,000. If it is added to the milk ration 

 after calves show symptoms of scouring, 

 the effect is very decided and a recovery 

 ordinarily takes place within two or 

 three days. 



