REARING OF CALVES FOR THE DAIRY. 207 



safely given all they will eat. They should always have all the good sweet 

 mixed meadow hay that they relish. They should not be fattened, but kept 

 in a thriving condition. Bulky food should be given that their stomachs may be 

 developed. You cannot get the stomach too large for a dairy cow ; provid- 

 ing the animal is kept thrifty. If calves are dropped at other seasons, care 

 should be exercised that growth is not checked during the following winter. 

 I have my heifers take their places in the dairy at about two years of age. 

 After a heifer is bred for her first calf, she should be fed liberally with view of 

 developing her milk glands. I prefer not to have my heifers drop their first 

 calf in winter, they develop their udders more perfectly on grass. Heifers 

 require plenty of succulent food for udder-development. The character of the 

 dairy cow is largely made during the first period of gestation." 



Mills Tourtellotte, La Crosse, Wis.: 



" We have had good success with our calves for a few years and a compli- 

 ance with your request on this subject may interest others situated as we were 

 once, in trying to raise a calf as it should be and at the same time preserve 

 the mother's milk for the dairy. If the dairyman could always depend on 

 keeping up his herd to a desired standard of production by purchase, a large 

 expense to him would be saved. But it is pretty generally conceded now that 

 to have a profitable herd of milch cows they must be raised by the owner from 

 calves of his own breeding. No man can buy any considerable number of well 

 bred cows of approved capacity for quantity and quality of milk without pay- 

 ing more than can be invested profitably in the dairy business. This makes the 

 subject of this article important as the foundation of a successful business. 

 It is a very easy matter, if no regard is paid to cost, to rear calves from dairy 

 ancestry so as to produce rapid growth and development ; but how to do this 

 cheaply has caused many a man an investment of a good many dollars, and in 

 the last twenty-five years we have had our share of such experience. If what 

 the farmer has to sell is cheap in the market he must produce a good article at 

 a figure that will insure a profit or he must fail in his enterprise. 



" Here in Wisconsin for several years it has not been profitable for dairymen 

 to pay much attention to the production of beef. We therefore have not raised 

 any of the male calves, except from the best thoroughbred cows. The female 

 calves that come healthy and strong are matured to take the place of the old 

 cows that must be culled out of every herd to maintain any given standard of 

 production. It will not do to have calves too fat. If the heifer calf is fat she 

 will not make a good dairy cow as a rule. The milk and digestive organs must 

 be cultivated and given every chance to develop. The only safe way to do this 

 is to keep a calf in a good healthy growing condition. Let her hair have a 

 healthy look, skin loose and eyes bright. 



" The calf is taken from the cow after the second day and taught to drink ; 

 for a week a little whole milk is mixed with skim milk, fresh and warm from 

 the separator, and a very little (about a tablespoon ful) of oil meal jelly (boiled 

 oil meal) is stirred in and fed to the calf twice a day. From the start the calf 

 is put in a light, warm, well ventilated and dry pen. Usually two or three 

 calves about the same age and size are put together. We place before them a 

 little bran and whole oats, and some very nice clover or millet hay is always in 

 the rack. The calves will very soon eat freely of this grain and hay. It is 

 always well to keep in a trough some good clean water. They will not drink 

 much at a time but will take a little very often. To calves that are intended 

 for the butcher we give a little more whole milk than is given to the others and 

 continue to give them such until they are about six weeks old when they are 

 ready for market. Always increase the amount of oil meal jelly according to 

 the capacity of the calf, paying attention to the condition of the bowels. If 

 the bowels get too loose stop the oil meal for a few rations, but if care is used 

 the oil meal jelly will not cause any trouble. Always when we used unboiled 

 oil meat our calves had bowel trouble and did not do well. When the calves we 

 intend to keep and mature into dairy cows are about eight weeks old we put 

 them into stanchions and feed them as before, only increasing the amount of 

 grain and hay to what they will eat up clean twice a day. 



" Our calves commence coming about the first of September and we find it 

 to be our experience that the late fall and winter calves are reared the easiest 

 and develop the fastest. In the spring they are ready to be turned out to 

 grass and with a little grain they will continue to make rapid growth, and when 

 two years old each one ought to have a calf and commence paying her own 



