182 



Baby Beef. 



[JUNE, 



in calf, this is an excellent system provided that we can 

 find suitable buildings on a farm. From the time the calf is 

 dropped, heifer and offspring are kept in a box and fattened 

 out together, when the calf is about 12 months old. I have 

 known many cases where the fat heifer and beefling have 

 left £1 10s. a month for their keep. Good heifers ready to 

 "bull" can be bought for £11, allowing £3 for their nine 

 months' keep, i.e., five months aftermath and winter grazing, 

 and four months in the straw-yard. The couple at birth 

 of calf might be invoiced at £14; after 12 months' keep the 

 yearling might well be expected to return ,£15, and the heifer 

 could be counted on to yield another £17, Expenditure on 

 cake and corn might be managed so as not to cost more than 

 £10 for the pair for the year. At this rate £8 would be left 

 for hay, straw, roots, or other fodder; and this certainly is a 

 very much less expensive way of making dung than some 

 other methods. 



The objections to this system of feeding out are generally 

 the want of proper accommodation, and sometimes the want 

 of a good bull to put with the heifers, and without this last 

 factor failure is almost certain. 



It is necessary to dishorn calves that are kept in this way, 

 as otherwise the heifers will wean them at about five months, 

 whereas they ought to suck till they are nine months old, even 

 if they only get a pint or two a day. 



Baby Beef-making on the Pail. — In the Journal of the 

 Royal Agricultural Society previously mentioned, Mr. H. 

 Evershed gives an account of a system, and as I know the 

 farm on which it was carried out, I propose to refer to it in 

 some detail. 



The farm consists of about 300 acres, of which only 15 were 

 in grass. A few large deep milking cows were kept, and 

 every year from 100 to 150 young bullocks went out at from 

 12 to 18 months old. In one year 170 bullocks went out at 

 an average of 15 months (they ranged from 14 to 18 months, 

 but very few were more than 15 months old). The average 

 carcass weight of these 170 bullocks was 37 stones (of 14 lb.), 

 which at 8s. a stone gives a value of ^14 16s. each. 



The calves were bought in, except the few from the above- 

 mentioned cows, and the home-bred ones were found to do 



