cows THAT SUCKLE THlilR CALVES 213 



during the first days and weeks of its life, such milk 

 will not be forthcoming. It is not necessary to dwell 

 upon the inseparable relation between abundant milk 

 supply and rapid growth in the calf. 



Reasonably abundant milk-giving should be en- 

 couraged in this class of cows, because of the relation 

 that subsists between milk production and regular breed- 

 ing. It has been noticed that the regularity of the 

 breeding in the cows and consequently the number of 

 calves produced is greater in herds that milk more or 

 less freely than in those in which nurse cows are numer- 

 ously kept, and the same has been true of individual 

 cows. This observed fact has exercised an influence on 

 the choice of cows for breeding in some of the most 

 famous herds of beef cattle. The fact is coming to be 

 more and more recognized that a cow which does not 

 give enough milk to induce good growth in her own 

 calf during the nursing period is not the best type of a 

 breeding cow, even in a beef herd, notwithstanding that 

 her own fleshing qualities may rank high. 



Management when the calf remains with the dam. — 

 Two methods of rearing calves of the beef types are 

 practiced. By the first, the calves remain with the dam 

 until weaned. By the second, after the first week or two 

 they are confined and only allowed to nurse from the 

 dams at certain times. The first method, now to be 

 considered, involves less labor than the other, but to it 

 there are the objections, first, that in winter more room 

 is called for by the cows, since each must then have a 

 box stall; second, that the cows thus managed do not, 

 as a rule, become pregnant again at so early a period ; 

 third, supplementary foods cannot be so well given to 

 the calves ; and, fourth, growth through weaning is more 

 liable to be arrested for a time with calves thus reared 

 than with those that are confined. 



When the calf remains with the dam from birth 



