5 THE MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF CATTLE 



The advantages from such a system are: ( i ) It 

 gives the calves a somewhat better start than when they 

 are early put upon skim milk. (2) It is to some extent 

 labor-saving. (3) It makes available a large propor- 

 tion of skim milk when wanted for other uses. The 

 chief difficulty to be overcome is that of securing calves 

 from the milking herd just when they are wanted. This 

 may in some cases be partially overcome by obtaining 

 calves from cows kept for family use, providing the 

 calves are not the progeny of straight dairy sires. 



Calves for feeding, breeding or milk production. — 

 Tlie object for which calves are reared should have a 

 modifying influence on the methods to be adopted in 

 rearing them. In some cases, the methods to be fol- 

 lowed in rearing them for feeding and breeding may be 

 approximate, but in others they materially differ. In all 

 cases the rearing of calves for milk production chiefly 

 differs from rearing them for feeding, but it does not 

 always differ from the methods that are best suited to 

 rearing them for breeding. Much depends upon the 

 object for which they are bred. The methods that will 

 be proper for growing animals reared mainly for milk 

 production will be proper also for growing dairy animals 

 kept mainly for breeding uses. Speaking in a general 

 way, it will be correct to say that the diet for calves 

 grown for feeding should be generous and rich in carbo- 

 hydrates during the whole period of calfhood, that for 

 calves reared for breeding less so, and that for calves 

 1 eared for milk production chiefly should be largely 

 nitrogenous. 



Calves for feeding on the arable farm, whether 

 reared on the dam or by hand (see p. 12), should he 

 given a diet that will not only promote good growth of 

 frame and muscle, but that will also result in the free 

 laying on of fat. While the calf is young it must be 

 fed new milk or the er|ui\'alent of butter fat contained 



