BREEDING BEEF CATTLE 317 



feeding of the dam, both cow and calf can be kept in healthy- 

 condition. 



Male calves should be castrated before they have reached 

 the age of three months, and this may be done any time after 

 the calf is one week old. If hornless animals are desired, the 

 horns should be removed with caustic potash as soon as they 

 begin to appear (page 255). 



Calves should be weaned at five to eight months of age. 

 Weaning is rather a question of preparation than of the 

 absolute removal of the calf from the cow, and the simplicity 

 of the weaning process depends on the thoroughness of the 

 preparation. If the calf has been accustomed to the grain as 

 suggested, if it has been permitted to take increasingly more 

 as it grows, the process will not be diflScult, for as the ration 

 increases in the amount of grain it will decrease in the amount 

 of milk. With such precaution, there will be very little if any 

 set-back or disturbance to calf or dam. On the other hand, 

 if the calf must learn to eat after being deprived of its accus- 

 .tomed source of food supply, it will require time to get used to 

 the new condition, and the cow will demand special care, be- 

 cause of the removal of the calf before her milk supply has 

 been diminished, to any extent. 



Weanlings should be well cared for during their first winter 

 if they are to make profitable feeding cattle. They should 

 have snug quarters, with opportunity for exercise, and be well 

 fed. Weanling calves are often let run with the stock cattle 

 and compelled to subsist entirely on dry forage, with the result 

 that they run down in condition and sometimes are stunted, 

 from which they never fully recover. A calf that is once 

 stunted will not make a good feeding animal. On the other 

 hand, if these weanlings are fed a liberal allowance, say four 

 pounds daily per head, of the grain mixture suggested for the 

 sucking calf, with clover, alfalfa, cowpea, or mixed hays in 

 addition, they will come through the winter strong and thrifty 



