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Thirty-fourth Annual Convention. ^^^ 



Member: — How about experiments with cod liver oil? 



Mr. Van Pelt: — There have been experiments with cod 

 liver oil but they have not been so successful as hay tea. Cod 

 liver oil could be fed to a certain amount but a small amount of 

 cod liver oil will affect the digestive apparatus and they do not 

 do as well as on skim milk alone, it does not seem to be palata- 

 ble and the calves will leave the meal on which cod liver oil was 

 placed. 



Mr. Gregg: — How do you check the habit of sucking? 



Mr. Van Pelt: — In going over that matter I said that as 

 soon as the calf gets large enough to eat grain to throw a little 

 ground grain in its mouth. Up at the college we have for each 

 calf small stanchions with cement manger running the full 

 length of the barn. When a calf wants his milk we set the 

 bucket down in the manger, he comes through and we close the 

 stanchion up and he does not get his head out until he starts 

 eating the grain, and as soon as he commences eating the grain 

 there is no more trouble. 



Mr. Gregg: — There is a period when they cannot take the 

 whole grain. 



Mr. Van Pelt: — Probably the best thing then is to keep 

 them in the stanchions until the taste goes out of their mouth. 



Mr. Gregg : — I had some but I made a muzzle for them and 

 fixed them that way. 



Mr. Van Pelt: — That is a thing that causes a good deal of 

 trouble. 



Member: — I would like to refer to the statement you made 

 about the resting period of the milk cow, in regard to feeding 

 the cow. Is there not more danger of losing such cow after 

 freshening than when we cut the feed short during the resting 

 period ? 



Mr. Van Pelt: — -J did not bear as much stress on that as I 

 would have done had I been talking of feeding the cow herself. 

 A few years ago that advice would have been erroneous because 

 a cow in a fleshy condition at calving time is more susceptible to 

 milk fever and we used to And, and do find yet that fleshy cows 

 have milk fever more often than the cows that freshen in a poor 

 condition, but at the present time we have no fear whatever of 

 milk fever. Really I think when a cow freshens and has milk 

 fever it is a good indication that she is going to produce a good 



