FIFTIETH ANNUAL CONVENTION 85 



ECONOMICAL RATIONS FOR DAIRY CALVES* 



F. B. Morrison, Wisconsin Agricultural Experiment Station 



Where there is an abundance of skim milk for calf 

 feeding, the raising of vigorous dairy calves is relatively- 

 simple. Various experiments have shown clearly that as 

 thrifty calves can be raised when changed to skim milk at 

 but few weeks of age as those which are fed whole milk 

 until weaning time. However, when a liberal supply of 

 skim milk is not at hand, the problem is a more complicated 

 one. 



Over increasing areas of our country dairymen do not 

 have an abundance of skim milk for feeding their calves. 

 They may sell cream to the creamery, but may wish to use 

 part of the skim milk for feeding swine or poultry. In 

 several large districts dairymen now sell their milk to con- 

 densaries or ship it to city markets, thus having no skim 

 milk whatsoever available. In cheese-producing districts 

 plenty of whey is available for calf feeding, but such poor 

 results have been secured by most farmers with this dairy 

 by-product that probably the majority make no attempt to 

 use it for this purpose. 



Three Trials Conducted. 



To secure information on the most economical rations 

 for calves under various conditions, trials have been carried 

 on during the past three years at the Wisconsin Experiment 

 Station. Each year high grade Holstein and Guernsey heif- 

 er calves have been purchased and placed on experiment 

 when two to three weeks of age. Up to this time they had 

 received whole milk, as is the universal practice in feeding 

 dairy calves. The calves were continued on experiment for 

 24 weeks, or until they were about 6 months of age. The 

 trials thus cover the entire period during which skim milk 

 or milk substitutes are ordinarily fed. 



