528 



Calf Rearing. 



July. If all goes well, ten calves are purchased about the 

 middle of July, and five cows have their calves weaned. 



The weaned calves are put in some covered and enclosed 

 place, out of hearing of the cows, which are tied up again in the 

 byre, and to each is given two of the young purchased calves 

 These calves are kept in a loose box at the end of the byre, and 

 are taught always to go to the same cow. After a week or ten 

 days it is only necessary to open the door between the byre and 

 the calves' place, when each pair of calves go to their own 

 respective cow. After the cows have forgotten their first calves 

 (in about eight days), they are turned out to grass, and are 

 brought in morning, noon and night, to suckle their second lot 

 of calves. The rest of the cows are treated in the same way, 

 till all have a second lot of calves suckling. Of course, a calf is 

 lost now and then, and, if it is one of the second lot, it may be 

 too late to replace, so that the number may be thus short of two 

 for each heifer and four for each cow ; but, taking the season 

 1902, the result was that, with two heifers and sixteen cows, 

 sixty-four calves were weaned, and one died after it was six 

 months old. The calves, after they have forgotten their foster- 

 mothers, are put on a clean foggage field (one where a hay crop 

 has been taken) and are given i£ lb. of linseed cake. During 

 the next winter the cake is continued, with an allowance of 

 turnips and meadow hay. 



Four yearling heifers are selected from the young stock and 

 are added to the breeding stock each year ; but as it is essential 

 for the success of the plan described that the cows should be 

 good-tempered, drafts of young and old are made from the 

 breeding herds each year, and only those that have proved 

 themselves to be good mothers and willing to take their proper 

 number of calves are retained. Up to 1895 the heifers only 

 reared one calf and the cows three per annum. At present 

 there are in the herd two of the original Dutch cows purchased 

 in 1888, at this date sixteen years old, having reared, up to the 

 end of 1902, one of them forty-two and the other forty, calves in 

 fifteen years. 



The calves when weaned and supplied with generous food 

 for some time after do not fall off at all, but improve regularly 

 until ready for the fat market. In proof of this, the fat animals 



