218 



PRODUCTIVE FEEDING OF FARM ANIMALS 



first few weeks, 4 to 6 pounds will make one pound of gain under 

 favorable conditions, while with older calves it will require 8 to 12 

 pounds to produce a pound of gain. 



Whole milk will produce larger gains in live weight than skim 

 milk or other feeds, but tins is made at considerably higher cost, 

 on account of the high value of whole milk as a human food. If 

 we assume that it will take 6 pounds of whole milk to make one 



Fig. 41.^ At meal time the calf is fed warm, sweet milk in a clean pail, while securely 

 fastened in a comfortable stanchion. (Wisconsin Station.) 



pound of gain in a young calf and 12 pounds of skim milk (p. 20G), 

 the cost of the ration will be 12 cents in the former case, and 3.6 cents 

 in the case of skim milk at ordinary creamery prices — $2.00 per 

 hundred pounds for whole milk and 30 cents per hundred pounds 

 of skim milk. In experiments at the Kansas station it cost four 

 times as much to produce a pound of gain with calves on whole 

 milk as on skim milk, although the whole-milk calves gained an 

 average of 1.86 pounds daily, against 1.51 pounds for the skim- 

 milk calves. 4 



Looking at the problem from another point of view, Otis found 

 that two pounds of grain, when fed with the proper amount of 

 skim milk, were equivalent for calf feeding to one pound of butter 



'Bulletin 126; Wisconsin Bulletin 192. 



