330 THE MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF CATTLE 



makes it not easy to sustain enough flesh. The calf is 

 born during a period when the feeding is least forced, 

 that is, two to three months subsequent to the fair sea- 

 son, and this is favorable to safe parturition. 



The nursing period with such females should not 

 extend beyond four to five months. If continued longer, 

 the fleshy condition called for in animals that win mav 

 not be sufficiently attained. It is the practice with some 

 exhibitors to dry off their show females within a few- 

 weeks after the calf is born. This practice, favorable to 

 the maintaining of high flesh, is adverse to the mainte- 

 nance of healthy action in the breeding powers. It is 

 usually very difficult to maintain continuance in breed- 

 ing in females thus managed. 



As in the case of breeding bulls, such females must 

 be given more exercise than will suffice for animals 

 shown in the fat classes that are not breeders. This 

 means that the amount of exercise called for before the 

 time of breeding and subsequently may be such as to 

 hinder accumulation in the direction of highest finish. 

 If the females fail to breed, no honest owner can show 

 them in the breeding classes. This exercise can most 

 easily be secured by allowing them to graze more than 

 would be considered judicious in non-breeding animals 

 in the fat classes. 



On returning from the fairs, the reducing of the 

 food, especially the concentrates, must be given due at- 

 tention. The extent of the reduction should, in some 

 instances, if not in all, be as much as half the entire 

 amount fed. The meal should consist mainly of oats 

 and bran. Roots should be increased, as with cattle in 

 the purely fat classes. The hazard is not present that 

 the heavy feeding of these will so stimulate the milk 

 flow that milk fever will follow at parturition, an oc- 

 currence to be guarded against with females of the dairy 

 and dual types when free milkers. But when the cows 

 are nursing their calves, the proportion of the grain fed 



