186 ILLINOIS STATE DAIRYMEN'S ASSOCIATION 



ECONOMICAL RATIONS FOR DAIRY CALVES 



R. S. Hulco, F. B. Morrison and G. C. Humphrey, 

 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 a 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 market, 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. Each year high grade Hol- 

 stein and Guernsey heifer 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 dur- 

 ing which skim milk or milk substitutes are ordinarily fed. 



