Milch Cows and Dairy Farming / Comprising the Breeds, Breeding, and Management, in Health and Disease, of Dairy and Other Stock, the Selection of Milch Cows, with a Full Explanation of Guenon's Method; The Culture of Forage Plants, and the Production of Milk, Butter, and Cheese: Embodying the Most Recent Improvements, and Adapted to Farming in the United States and British Provinces. With a Treatise upon the Dairy Husbandry of Holland; To Which Is Added Horsfall's System of Dairy Management

by Charles Louis Flint

The practice in Holland is to remove the calf from the mother even before it has been licked, and to take it into one corner of the barn, or into another building, out of the cow’s sight and hearing, put it upon soft dry straw, and rub it dry with some hay or straw, when its tongue and gums are slightly rubbed with salt, and the mucus and saliva removed from the nostrils and lips. After this has been done, the calf is made to drink the milk first taken as it comes from the mother. It is slightly diluted with water, if taken last from the udder; but, if the first of the milking, it is given just as it is. The calf is taught to drink in the same manner as in this country, by putting the fingers in its mouth and bringing it down to the milk, and it soon gets so as to drink alone. It is fed at first from four to six times a day, or even oftener; but soon only three times, at regular intervals. Its food for two or three weeks is clear milk, as it comes warm and fresh from the cow. This is never omitted, as the milk during the most of that time possesses certain qualities which are necessary to the calf, and which cannot be effectually supplied by any other food. In the third or fourth week the milk is skimmed, but warmed to the degree of fresh milk; though, as the calf grows a little older, the milk is given cold, while less care is taken to give it the milk of its own mother, that of other cows now answering equally well. In some places calves are fed on butter-milk at the age of two weeks and after; but the change from new milk, fresh from the cow, is made gradually, some sweet skim-milk and warm water being at first added to it.

At three weeks old, or thereabouts, the calf will begin to eat a little sweet, fine hay, and potatoes cut fine, and it very soon becomes accustomed to this food. Many now begin to give linseed-meal mixed into hot water, to which is added some skim-milk or butter-milk; and others use a little bran cooked in hay-tea, made by chopping the hay fine, and pouring on boiling hot water, which is allowed to stand a while on it. An egg is frequently broken into such a mixture. Others still at this age take pains to have fresh linseed-cake, broken into pieces of the size of a pigeon’s-egg; putting one of these into the mouth after the meal of milk has been finished, and when it is eager to suck at anything in its way. It will very soon learn to eat linseed-meal. A little sweet clover is put in its way at about the age of three weeks, and it will soon eat that also.

In this manner the feeding is continued from the fourth to the seventh week, the quantity of solid food being gradually increased. In the sixth or seventh week the milk is by degrees withheld, and water or butter-milk used instead; and soon after this, green food may be safely given, increasing it gradually with the hay to the age of ten or twelve weeks, when it will do to put them upon grass alone, if the season is favorable for it. A lot as near the house as possible, where they can be easily looked after and frequently visited, is best. Calves should be gradually accustomed to all changes; and even after being turned to pasture they ought to be taken in if the weather is not dry and warm. The want of care and attention to these little details will be apparent sooner or later; while, if the farmer give his own time to these matters, he will be fully paid in the rapid growth of his calves. It is especially necessary to see that the troughs from which they are fed, if troughs are used, are kept clean and sweet.

But there are some even among intelligent farmers who make a practice of turning their calves out to pasture at the tender age of two and three weeks, and that, too, when they have sucked the cow up to that time, and allow them nothing in the shape of milk or tender care. I cannot but think that this is the poorest possible economy, to say nothing of the cruelty of such treatment. The growth of the calf is checked, and the system receives a shock from so sudden a change, from which it cannot soon recover. The careful Dutch breeders bring the calves either skimmed milk or butter-milk to drink several times a day after they are turned to grass, which is not till the age of ten or twelve weeks; and, if the weather is chilly, the milk is warmed for them. They put a trough generally under a covering, where the calves may come and drink at regular times. Thus they are kept tame and docile.

In the raising of calves, through all stages of their growth, great care should be taken neither to starve nor to over-feed. A calf should never be surfeited, and never be fed so highly that it cannot be fed more highly as it advances. The most important point is to keep it growing thriftily without getting too fat, if it is to be raised for the dairy.

Mr. Aiton, in describing the mode of rearing calves in the dairy districts of Scotland, says: “They are fed on milk, with seldom any admixture; and they are not permitted to suckle their dams, but are taught to drink milk by the hand from a dish. They are generally fed on milk only for the first four, five, or six weeks, and are then allowed from two to two and a half quarts of new milk each meal, twice in the twenty-four hours. Some never give them any other food when young except milk, lessening the quantity when the calf begins to eat grass or other food, which it generally does when about five weeks old, if grass can be had; and withdrawing it entirely about the seventh or eighth week of the calf’s age. But, if the calf is reared in winter, or early in spring, before the grass rises, it must be supplied with at least some milk till it is eight or nine weeks old; as a calf will not so soon learn to eat hay or straw, nor fare so well on them alone as it will do on pasture. Some feed their calves reared for stock partly with meal mixed in the milk after the third or fourth week. Others introduce gradually some new whey among the milk, first mixed with meal; and, when the calf gets older, they withdraw the milk, and feed it on whey and porridge. Hay-tea, juices of peas and beans, or pea or bean straw, linseed beaten into powder, treacle, &c., have all been sometimes used to advantage in feeding calves; but milk, when it can be spared, is by far their most natural food.

“In Galloway, and other pastoral districts, where the calves are allowed to suckle, the people are so much wedded to their own customs as to argue that suckling is much more nutritive to the calves than any other mode of feeding. That suckling induces a greater secretion of saliva, which, by promoting digestion, accelerates the growth and fattening of the young animal, cannot be doubted; but the secretion of that fluid may likewise be promoted by placing an artificial teat in the mouth of the calf; and giving it the milk slowly, and at the natural temperature. In the dairy districts of Scotland, the dairy-maid puts one of her fingers into the mouth of the calf, when it is fed, which serves the purpose of a teat, and will have nearly the same effect as the natural teat, in inducing the secretion of saliva. If that, or an artificial teat of leather, be used, and the milk given slowly before it is cold, the secretion of saliva may be promoted to all the extent that can be necessary; besides, that secretion is not confined to the mere period of eating, but, as in the human body, the saliva is formed and part of it swallowed at all times. As part of the saliva is sometimes seen dropping from the mouths of the calves, it might be advisable to give them not only an artificial teat, when fed, but to place, as is frequently done, a lump of chalk before them to lick, thus leading them to swallow the saliva. The chalk would so far supply the want of salt, of which cattle are so improperly deprived, and it would also promote the formation of saliva. Indeed, calves are much disposed to lick and suckle everything that comes within their reach, which seems to be the way that nature teaches them to supply their stomachs with saliva.

“But, though suckling their dams may be most advantageous in that respect, yet it has also some disadvantages. The cow is always more injured than the calf is benefited, by that mode of feeding. She becomes so fond of the calf that she does not, for a long time after, yield her milk freely to the dairy-maid. The calf does not when young draw off the milk completely, and when it is taken off by the hand the cow withholds part of her milk; and, whenever a cow’s udder is not completely emptied every time she is milked, the lactic secretion is thereby diminished.

“Feeding of calves by the hand is in various other respects advantageous. Instead of depending on the uncertain or perhaps precarious supply of the dam, which may be more at first than the young animal can consume or digest, and at other times too little for its supply, its food can, by hand-feeding, be regulated to suit the age, appetite, and purposes for which the calf is intended; other admixtures or substitutes can be introduced into the milk, and the quantity gradually increased or withdrawn at pleasure. This is highly necessary when the calves are reared for stock. The milk is in that case diminished, and other food introduced so gradually that the stomach of the young animal is not injured as it is when the food is too suddenly changed. And, in the case of feeding of calves for the butcher, the quantity of milk is not limited to that of the dam (for no cow will allow a stranger calf to suckle her), but it can be increased, or the richest or poorest parts of the milk given, at pleasure.”

In these districts, where, probably, the feeding and management of calves is as well and judiciously conducted as in any other part of Britain, the farmers’ wives and daughters, or female domestics, have the principal charge of young calves; and they are, no doubt, much better calculated for this duty than men, since they are more inclined to be gentle and patient. The utmost gentleness should always be observed in the treatment of all stock; but especially of milch cows, and calves designed for the dairy. Persevering kindness and patience will, almost invariably, overcome the most obstinate natures; while rough and ungentle handling will be repaid in a quiet kind of way, perhaps, by withholding the milk, which will always have a tendency to dry a cow up; or, what is nearly as bad, by kicking, and other modes of revenge, which often contribute to the personal discomfort of the milker. The disposition of the cow is greatly modified, if not, indeed, wholly formed, by her treatment while young; and therefore it is best to handle calves as much as possible, and make pets of them, lead them with a halter, and caress them in various ways. Calves managed in this way will always be docile, and suffer themselves to be approached and handled both in the pasture and the barn.