^^2 Illinois State Dairymen's Association. 



milking with a milk rich in butter fat and also solids not fat. 



Then, too, you should bear in mind the fact that the young 

 animal is made up almost entirely of protein and cartilage tissue. 

 If you learn that bone, hair, horn and hoofs are built of protein, 

 you must be impressed with the fact that what that cow needs is 

 food rich in protein if she produces the results you desire. 



After the calf comes to our barns we have other problems 

 to solve and I am satisfied the best system of management is to 

 allow the infant to remain with its mother two or three days. 

 This is good not only for the calf but for the mother. The pro- 

 cess of nursing relieves the udder of much of the inflamation 

 present, especially in young cows, then too the yoimgster gets the 

 first milk. After the second or third day it is wise to take the calf 

 away from the cow. There is no time when it is so easy to teach 

 the calf to drink as during the second and third days of its life. 

 After a calf is taken away from its mother, I doubt very much 

 whether it is policy to try to teach that calf to drink inside of 

 twelve hours, whether you would accomplish anything more than 

 to lose your temper and a small portion of your religion, so I 

 think it is well to wait. When you commence to teach him put 

 two fingers in his mouth, then he will soon learn how to drink 

 out of the pail ; if you take only one finger it is liable to be five 

 days before he learns to drink, but with two fingers he will learn 

 inside of five minutes. 



After allowing the calf to have whole milk for probably 

 the first ten days or two weeks, it can be gradually changed to 

 skim milk or some other nourishing product that will give the 

 growth, and for a dairy calf, as soon as it gets to a stage where 

 it can handle skim milk to the best advantage, it is preferable 

 to feed skim milk than whole milk. I know a great many 

 wealthy men in the East would rather see their calves drink 

 whole milk than skim milk and as a consequence you never 

 heard of one of those men raising a good calf. At the end of 

 two weeks the calf should be taking practically all skim milk. 

 Professor Hayden said, "Remember do not ever try to make up 

 for quality by quantity." Do not think because your skim 

 milk has not the fat that you can overcome that by supplying 

 a great amount. It is a good thing to bear in mind never to 

 feed a calf more than 20 lbs. of skim milk a day. I would 

 rather throw skim milk away than give a calf more than 20 lbs. 



