RAISING DAIRY CATTLE 



283 



bing a little on its muzzle when it is thru drinking milk. Having 

 learned the taste of the meal, the calf should be fed its allowance dry 

 from a convenient feed box. Until it becomes accustomed to the new 

 article of diet, a supply of meal may be kept before it. After this, 

 only as much should be fed as will be eaten up, and the feed box 

 should be cleaned out regularly. At 6 weeks the calf will usually 

 eat 0.5 lb. of concentrates a day ; at 2 months, about 1 lb. ; and at 3 

 months, 2 lbs. Unless it is desired to push the animal ahead rapidly 

 no more than this need be fed the skim-milk calf up to 6 months. 1 



Fig. 79. — Home-Made Stanchions for Calves 



Calves should be confined in stanchions at feeding time until they eat their 

 concentrates and overcome the desire to suck each others ears or udders. (From 

 Wisconsin Station.) 



Concentrates for skim-milk calves. — Since skim milk is very rich 

 in protein, it is not necessary to use protein-rich feeds, such as linseed 

 or flaxseed meal, as concentrates for skim-milk calves. The farm- 

 grown grains, such as corn, oats, barley, and kafir, give fully as good 

 results and are ordinarily the cheapest concentrates available. Mix- 

 ing small amounts of such well-liked feeds as linseed meal or bran 

 with the grain may sometimes be advantageous to make the ration 

 more palatable. In teaching calves to eat, ground grain is usually 

 fed, but later whole corn or oats gives as good or even better results 



i Eckles, Dairy Cattle and Milk Production, p. 184. 



