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About The Southern agriculturist. (Savannah ;) 1868-???? | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1872)
What I Know about Calves and Cows. Editors of the American Farmer : I sometimes hear and often see written statements like this, “ I , calves that 1 never allow any am raising to suck the cow.” It is well known that tho•first milk from a cow after she drops her calf contains medicinal properties necessary to the health of the calf ; it cannot be taken from the cow and fed to tho calf without losing at least a portion of the aDimal warmth so 11 necessary to the calf, when first exposed to the air Beyond all doubt the best way to raise a healthy calf is to let it suck its mother until it is old enough to take care of itself ; it may not always he best for the cow, but it the calf is allowed to suck only night and morning, and care be taken to milk the cow entire!// clean immediately after, I do not see what harm can come to the cow. I prefer to have calves that I intend to raise dropped in the Win¬ ter ; calves dropped in January and February will be ready to turn out to pasture by the first of May. I always let the calf suck the cow at least two weeks, for the good of both the cow and calf; and in the ease of the first calf, not less than four weeks. There need be no trouble in teaching a calf to drink at three weeks of age ; if it is very obstinate, let it wait, it will drink before it will starve. I feed new warm milk until the calf is six to seven weeks old ; after that, skimmed milk, warmed If a little corn meal, mixed with wheat braD, is stirred into the milk, tho calf will do better. If the calf sours, give it an ounce or two of wheat flour, or a raw egg. A calf should not be exposed to cold raius before it is five to six months old, and if turning it out to pasture checks its growth in the least, it should be fed either milk or grain. It is most essential that there be no falling off in the growth at any time during its first year. By the first of November 1 begin to feed, giving equal quantities of Indian corn and oats ground together, from one quart to three pints to each animal, with all the good hay or rowcu they will eat. They should have a good roomy stable at night, and not be allowed out in the rain or snow. Kept in this manner, heifers may be allowed to take the bull at any time from twelve to fifteen months of age. I prefer to have a heifer drop her first calf before she is two and one-half years old (Jerseys not older than two years); they make gentler and better cows. 1 do not teed grain to my heifers when be¬ tween one and two years until they are within three or four weeks of calving, being without they are bad keepers, it understood that no cow or heifer should be allowed to get thin at any time, if it can be prevented. A great deal has been said and written about the best and most eco¬ nomical way of keeping cows. Some advocate what is called “soiling,” a most pernicious practice, which should never be thought of except in cities or on board ship. No doubt a larger number of cattle can be fed from the product of a given number of acres by this system than by let¬ ting them run at large, hut the cattle will suffer in health, and more es pecially will the evil effects be develop¬ ed in their descendants, who will lack bone, muscle and a vigorous constitution. There may be a necessity in Eng¬ land, and perhaps other places, for feeding turnips and other roots to cows, but I think none exists here, where we have plenty of good pas¬ ture and hay. I have tried and discarded the whole brood ; they all more or less affect the flavor of tbe milk, turnips most of all ; cabbago, though uot exactly a root, about as bad ; one can smell a cow fed on either thirty or forty feet. In Summer, old pastures, where there will always bo a variety 'of grasses, arc the best. Clear vanning water is very essential. I always yard my cows at night ; they have plenty of time to eat during the day, and by doing it most of the mauurc is saved. A* soon as the pastures bogus to get short in the Fall I begin to feed ; it will not cost nearly so much to Winter a cow if she goes in Winter quarters in good condition, tlfasten my cows in stanchions. If properly made, not a pound of hay will be wasted. At night they have as much hay as they will eat; in tho morning, oorn stalks ; at noon, hoy are fod from two to three quarts (as they differ in size and ap¬ petite) of Indian corn and oats, ground together in equal measured quantities, mixed either wot or dry without about twice the quantity wheat chaff; when they arc moving about tho yard during the day, they have oat straw, cither in the stack, where all caugetatit, or scattered about the yard. Cows not giving milk will uot need as much feed, but they should bo well fed for three or four weeks before calving. Plenty of water should bo kept where tbe cattle can get at it all times during the day. Two or three weeks before calving the cow should be placed in a roomy box stall ; immediately after she has dropped her calf she should have a puilfull of warm water, with two or three quarts of bran stirred in ; she will usually drop the after-birth in one hour, but if she does not, givo another warm mash ; no cold water should he allowed under twenty four hours. I have never fed cotton seed cake, but I consider linseed cake dangerous for a cow with calf—very likely to produce abortion. My bull calves I feed the same as my heifers the first year ; after that, # not a particlo of grain of any kiud. All cattle should be kept clean at all times. I have fed and cared for my cows as above directed for the last five years. During that time I have had but one cow to fallow. I have not lost so many as one calf in fifty, and I am sure that during the whole year I get one-third more milk than I did when I fed wheat and rye straw, buckwheat, beans, pumpkins, linseed cake, roots, and the various other things that people who knew nothing about the matter advised, It will be understood that I farm in Ne w Jersey. What modification may be necessary in a different climate I have no means of knowing, but it I was going to keep a cow in the moon, I would have Indian corn meal and wheat chaff for her. L. E. Bice. Princeton , N. J. ■- Raising Cows for the Dairy. BY DAVID Z. EVANS, JR., IN RURAL ALABAMIAN. Beyond the mere satisfaction of having the name of and making the finest butter, is the great satisfaction of obtaining the best prices and readiest sales for your daily products, a thing which is utterly impossible without the best and thorough manage¬ ment throughout the long list of de¬ tails which, together, couspire to as¬ sist 1 he dairyman in producing “gilt edged” or prime butter. I do not meaD, now, to go into describing tho minute details of dairy farming, for it would take far more space than is contained betweou the two covers of this journal, but merely comment upon the proper method of raising cows for dairy purposes, irrespective of blood or pedigrees. It requires both care and judgment to properly rear heifers intended for a future dairy herd, and unless it is bestowed from the commencement, and so continuod, all after care is of little avail, for ull dairymen well know that a stunted heifer is next thing to worthless, at least for dairy ing; and, unless such heifers he from the very best milking and butter stock—and not then, in many cases— will they consent to raise sneh an animal, for the chances are decidedly against them. Tho food should be of such a quality and in such quantities as will tend to a healthy and vigorous, though natural growth, at the same time aiming to foster all the good and dosirable qualities. Never select the young from com molt or ordinary stuck, but only from those in the herd which are of good size, are healthy, and above all, give the greatest amount of rich, butter, producing milk. By mating such stock with thoroughbred hulls of acknowledged good points and ex¬ cellence, the produet is, invariably, an improve incut on the mother ; and as improvers ouly, of our ordinary farm stock should tho ped’greed stock of our country be considered, and not as stock to produce for the ordinary wants and uses of the farm, for the butcher, etc. The best of stabling during the Winter, and good nutritious food are the prime essentials dur'mg the cold weather, and good pasturage, with abundauce of pure, fresh water arc the necessaries during the Sum¬ mer, to ensure good cows for the dairy. Never make a practice of leaving the bull run with the h rd of cows or youDg heifers, for it is a pernicious practice, good breeders and justly condemned by all ; but keep him stabled until wanted, when the heifer <.r heifers can be turned into his en closure, for, unless this is doue, the < heifers w/11 often take the bull some time before they should, often before they are a year old, while we con¬ sider it much the best, both for us, financially speaking, and for the future cow, to keep the bull away until the animal has attained the ago of fifteen months, when you eau, with safety and profit, mate her with the bull you desire as a sire. Do not stint in food, nor yet feed food so rich as to impair the general health of the animal, for they are much more susceptible before two years of age than when older; so do not do anything to undo your previous good and careful management. feeding, especially just before calving, has otten deleterious effects upon the auiuial, for it sometimes induces in¬ flammation iu the udder, which naturally has somewhat inflamed about this time, which is apt to result in an impaired secretion ot the milk, owing to part of that organ being injured or impaired, llcrc, again, it not caie fully looked to, you may partially lose the good results brought up to this point by careful management, tor, in¬ stead of a first class milker, you may soon find out that you have only a second or third-rate one, or one tar better fitted lor tin* butcher thau for ttie dairymau. But permit me heie to remark, that far more cows are im¬ paired in a milk-producing way by under feed ing than by overdeeding ; so it is ouly iu special cases that such caution as the above is desirable. After the calf lias arrived, iced the mother wet teed almost exclusively, it it be early Spring or during Winter, in preference to dry feed, of a violent heating nature, for the animal now requires such, aud do not stint her in the least in the matter of water. Wet food of good quality, aud in sufficient quantity, stimulates the milk producing capacity of a cow, and hence, should be mainly used. Lot the calf draw as much milk ftoui the mother as she wishes, and at the same time, to prevent unnecessary inflam¬ mation, draw all the surplus milk from her at least twice a day, some re¬ commending three time each day, which may bo a somewhat trouble¬ some task at first, but if the heifer has been petted aud kindly treated while iu her heiferhood, she will soon be very willing for you to relieve her surplus load of lacteal fluid, aud thereby allay, in a great measure, tho inflamed and distended udder. After the tendency to feverishness has passed off, the amount and quality of food can bo increased, which should, be such as produces a small amouut of fat-producing lat aud a large supply of milk, for all shorter, the supply properties flow invariably or of milk. Although a first-class milxcr is rarely fat or fleshey, yet it must not be in¬ ferred from this that a poor cow will milk largely or well. It always pays to feed well; and, kuowiDg this, all well-to-do farmers make it a poiut to keop just enough stock to consume the products of the farm—those Intended for their use—and no more, knowing full well that it is true economy to do s” I have not touched on several im¬ portant points which come directly under the heading of this article lor want of sufficient space to do so, so foundations those “points” will have to form ’the for some future articles.^
