CALVES FROM BIRTH UNTIL ONE YEAR OLD 7 



brings when sold. These results can only be reached 

 by skillful feeders. 



If beef is ever to be extensively grown on the arable 

 farm, the calves grown into beef must be furnished by 

 hand-milked cows. This will follow, even though the 

 system, described below of requiring one nurse cow to 

 furnish milk for several calves should be adopted. The 

 cows which produce them must be of the dual type. If 

 of the straight dairy type, the progeny will not possess 

 the desired requisites for making beef. If of the straight 

 beef type, they will not furnish enough milk. Material 

 modifications, yet in the future, in the relative prices of 

 meat and milk, may lead to results quite different, but in 

 the meantime, the farmer who grows meat from birth 

 onward on the arable farm must obtain it from the dual 

 type of cow. 



The method of requiring one cow to suckle from 

 two to five calves has been practiced on some of the 

 farms of Great Britain. There would seem to be no 

 legitimate reason against introducing it into America. 

 It is in outline as follows: The dual type of cows is 

 maintained and they are milked by hand. The progeny 

 to be grown into meat are suckled by nurse cows. 

 These nurse cows, as soon as they come into milk, are 

 required to nurse two calves for, say, three months. The 

 calves meanwhile are so fed that, by the end of the 

 period named, they take to other food readily, which 

 prepares them for being weaned without the hazard of 

 checking growth. Two more calves are then put on the 

 cow, and are similarly managed for the next three 

 months. Then a fifth calf is introduced, which is suckled 

 during the next three months. The cow rests during 

 the following three months, until she freshens again. 

 A'Vhen but three calves are reared on the cow, the nurs- 

 ing period is, of course, prolonged. 



