218 QUEENSLAND AGRICULTURAL JourNAL. [1 Szpr., 1897. 
Dairy Notes. 
HOW TO RAISE A DAIRY CALF, 
Mr. C. P. Goopric, a recognised authority, says: “The business of a dairy 
cow is to consume and digest and turn into milk large quantities of milk- 
producing food, and the more of this kind of food she is able to consume and | 
utilise the more profitable she is as a dairy cow. \ The ability of an aninial to - 
consume and utilise any particular food element is increased by early education 
anduse. . . . . This same kind of food that will produce the largest 
quantity of milk is the very kind of food that will build up the calf’s frame— 
that is, make it grow rapidly, if fed in the proper quantities. The calf should 
never be made very fat and beefy, for this will induce a beef habit that will be 
likely to cling to it through life, so that when it becomes a cow and is fed high — 
to increase the milk production, the chances are that part of it will be turned 
into beef, The heifer calf that runs with its mother and takes all the whole 
milk it wants for some months, will become fat and be permanently injured for 
the dairy. Skimsmilk, being a protein food, is much better to develop the 
dairy qualities. My way of feeding is this: For the first week feed its 
mother’s whole milk. After that have part skim-milk, gradually increasing the 
proportion till by the time it is twelve days old, all the milk is skimmed. Feed 
from 12 to 16 1b. a day according to the ealf’s capacity—always sweet and 
warmed to blood heat. It is better to feed three times a day, though twice a 
day may do. Be careful about oyerfeeding on skim-milk when the calf is” 
young. It will not do to feed any more when the milk is skimmed than if it 
were not skimmed. A little oil-meal or flax seed-meal, about a spoonful to & 
feed, made into a gruel, is put into it to make up for the fat that has been 
taken off from the milk. When the calf is two weeks old it will begin to eat 
a little good clover hay, and at about that age it can be induced to eat a little © 
whole oats, bran, or middlings. Keep up the skim-milk feed until the calf is” 
seven or eight months old, increasing the amount of milk somewhat, and at 
the same time give all of the hay, oats, bran, &e., it will eat. It is better, until 
the calf is four months old, to feed hay with the milk instead of pasture grass. 
When the calves fed in this way are eight months old they are as large as 
‘ordinary yearlings, with large frames and a large capacity for consuming food, 
but they are not fat. I never’feed corn-meal to calves, neither do I feed 
timothy hay if it can be avoided, because these are fattening foods. I am 
determined to avoid fattening up an animal designed for the dairy, for in my 
pet experience T have seen too much of the evil effects of such a course of 
eeding. d ; 
There is a valuable lesson in those remarks for Queensland dairymen and 
-stock-raisers generally, if it is only taken in the right way. The proper treat- 
ment of the heifer calf is the first step towards getting cows that will give an 
average of 300 lb. of butter in the year. Let our dairy people make up thei 
minds that until they can show an average return of from 250 to 300 Ib. of 
butter from their herds, they cannot claim to be successful. To get this they 
have a lot tolearn, and we fear that the danger is not of overfeeding and fattening 
their heifer calves, but of starving and stunting them. Mr. Goodrich’s advice 
to feed clover hay may be substantially followed by feeding good lucerne hay 
or chaff instead. We do not grow oats for grain, but bran is always obtainable. 
Now, who will be the first to test the soundness of Mr. Goodrich’s great 
experience in its application to Queensland ? 
Mr. Goodrich is one of the most notably successful dairymen in America, 
and is a liberal contributor to the Dairy Press in that country. His statements 
Bs above quoted are taken from an article contributed by him to the Prairié 
armer. 
