Rations for Farm Stock. 



165 



Rations for Young Cattle. 



Calves should be kept on new milk for the first two weeks of 

 their lives, thereafter they may be put on to mixed new and 

 separated milk. After the fourth week they begin to nibble at 

 hay, and can be well kept on 2 gallons of separated milk a day 

 to which is added 3 tablespoonfuls (2 oz.) of cod liver oil. At 

 10 weeks the oil may be discontinued, and the calf will then 

 have to depend mainly on the carbohydrates of the hay for the 

 heat and fat producing matter of its food. A little linseed cake, 

 meal, and pulped swedes in winter, or grass in summer, should 

 gradually be introduced, so that at 6 months old milk may 

 be altogether discontinued if necessary. The calf will now 

 thrive well up to a year old on from 1 to 1 \ lb. of mixed linseed 

 cake and meal, 4 lb. or more of hay, and 3 to 10 lb. of swedes 

 (or grass in summer) a day, which will give an albuminoid 

 ratio of 1 to 4^ or 1 to 5 according to the proportion of hay and 

 roots eaten. On milk-selling and cheese-making farms, however, 

 separated milk is not available, and recourse has to be had to 

 milk substitutes or calf-meals to rear the heifer calves intended 

 for breeding. There is no difficulty in compiling from our food 

 table a meal that shall closely resemble milk in its digestible 

 constituents, but it cannot be done without at the same time 

 introducing a much larger amount of indigestible matter than 

 occurs in milk ; this, and the question of choosing meals that 

 will agree with the calf s stomach, constitute the practical difficulty 

 of rearing calves without milk. 



The following meals have been proved by the writer to be 

 good milk substitutes, having an albuminoid ratio about the 

 same as that of new milk : — 



Calf Meals. 



1 . — Linseed Cake Meal, 14 parts by weight 

 Crushed Linseed 5 ,, ?) 

 Wheat Flour 2 „ ,, 



Locust Bean Meal 2. .,, ,, 



Mix 3 lb. with 5 qts. of boiling water and a sprinkle of salt, say 

 J oz., for the day's allowance of one calf— given at three meals 

 under three months old, and at two meals above that age. 



2,*~-Linseed Cake meal t 2 parts 

 Oatmeal 2 

 Crushed Linseed 1 ,, 



