With respect to the use of hay-tea, often used in this country, but more common abroad, where greater care and attention is usually given to the details of breeding, Youatt says: “At the end of three or four days, or perhaps a week, or even a fortnight, after a calf has been dropped, and the first passages have been cleansed by allowing it to drink as much of the cow’s milk as it feels inclined for, let the quantity usually allotted for a meal be mixed, consisting, for the first week, of three parts milk and one part hay-tea. The only nourishing infusion of hay is that which is made from the best and sweetest hay, cut by a chaff-cutter into pieces about two inches long, and put into an earthen vessel; over this boiling water should be poured, and the whole allowed to stand for two hours, during which time it ought to be kept carefully closed. After the first week, the proportions of milk and hay-tea may be equal; then composed of two thirds of hay-tea and one of milk; and at length one fourth part of milk will be sufficient. This food should be given to the calf in a lukewarm state at least three, if not four times a day, in quantities averaging three quarts at each meal, but gradually increasing to four quarts as the calf grows older. Towards the end of the second month, beside the usual quantity given at each meal (composed of three parts of the infusion and one of milk), a small wisp or bundle of hay is to be laid before the calf, which will gradually come to eat it; but, if the weather is favorable, as in the month of May, the beast may be turned out to graze in a fine, sweet pasture, well sheltered from the wind and sun. This diet may be continued until towards the latter end of the third month, when, if the calf grazes heartily, each meal may be reduced to less than a quart of milk, with hay-water; or skimmed milk or fresh butter-milk may be substituted for new milk. At the expiration of the third month the animal will hardly require to be fed by hand, though, if this should still be necessary, one quart of the infusion given daily, and which during the summer need not be warmed, will be sufficient.” The hay-tea should be made fresh every two days, as it soon loses its nutritious quality.
This and other preparations are given not because they are better than milk, than which nothing is better adapted to fatten a calf, or promote its growth, but simply to economize by providing the most suitable and cheaper substitutes. Experience shows that the first two or three calves are smaller than those that follow; and hence, unless they are pure-bred, and to be kept for the blood, they are not generally thought to be so desirable to raise for the dairy as the third or fourth, and those that come after, up to the age of nine or ten years. On this point opinions differ.
According to the comparative experiments of a German agriculturist, cows which as calves had been allowed to suckle their dams from two to four weeks brought calves which weighed only from thirty-five to forty-eight pounds; while others, which, as calves, had been allowed to suckle from five to eight weeks, brought calves weighing from sixty to eighty pounds. It is difficult to see how there can be so great a difference, if, indeed, there is any; but it may be worthy of careful observation and experiment, and as such it is stated in this connection. The increased size of the calf would be due to the larger size to which the cow would attain; and if as a calf she were allowed to run with her dam in the pasture four or five months, taking all the milk she wanted, she would doubtless be kept growing on in a thriving condition. But taking a calf from the cow at four or even eight weeks must check its growth to some extent, and this may be avoided by feeding liberally, and bringing up by hand.
After the calf is fully weaned, there is nothing very peculiar in the general management. A young animal will require for the first few months—say up to the age of six months—an average of five or six pounds daily of good hay, or its equivalent. At the age of six months it will require from four and a half to five pounds, and at the end of the year from three and a half to four pounds of good hay, or its equivalent, for every one hundred pounds of its live weight; or, in other words, about three and a half or four per cent. of its live weight. At two years old it will require three and a half, and some months later three per cent. of its live weight daily in good hay or its equivalent. Indian-corn fodder, either green or cured, forms an excellent and wholesome food at this age.
The heifer should not be pampered, nor yet poorly fed or half starved, so as to receive a check in her growth. An abundant supply of good healthy dairy food and drink will do all that is necessary up to the time of having her first calf, which should not ordinarily be till the age of three years, though some choose to allow them to come in at two or a little over, on the ground that it early stimulates the secretion of milk, and that this will increase the milking propensity through life. This is undoubtedly the case, as a general rule; but I think greater injury is done by checking the growth, unless the heifer has been fed up to large size and full development from the start, in which case she may perhaps take the bull at fifteen or eighteen months without injury. I have had several come in as early as two years, and one at less than twenty months. This last was not by design, however, and I would rather have given a considerable sum than had it happen, as she was an exceedingly beautiful pure-bred Jersey, and I was desirous to have her attain to good size and growth. Even if a heifer comes in at two years, it is generally thought desirable to let her run farrow for the following year, which will promote her growth and more perfect development.
The feeding which young stock often get is not such as is calculated to make good-sized or valuable cattle of them. They are often fed on the poorest of hay or straw through the winter, not unfrequently left exposed to cold, unprotected and unhoused, and thus stinted in their growth. This seems to me to be the very worst economy, or rather no economy at all. Properly viewed, it is an extravagant wastefulness which no farmer can afford. No animal develops its good points under such treatment; and if the starving system is to be followed at all, it had better be after the age of two or three years, when the animal’s constitution has attained strength and vigor to resist ill treatment.
To raise up first-rate milkers, it is absolutely necessary to feed on dairy food even while young. No matter how fine the breed is, if the calf is raised on poor, short feed, it will never be so good a milker as if raised on better keeping; and hence, in dairy districts, where calves are raised at all, they ought to be allowed the best pasture during the summer, and good sweet and wholesome food during the winter.
CHAPTER VI.
CULTURE OF GRASSES AND OTHER PLANTS RECOMMENDED FOR FODDER.
As already stated, the grasses in summer, and hay in winter, form the most natural and important food for milch cows; and whatever other crops come in as additional, these will form the basis of all systems of feeding.