Jasper Republican, Volume 1, Number 5, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1874 — Shaker Plan of Raising Calves. [ARTICLE]

Shaker Plan of Raising Calves.

One of the Shaker brotherhood gave to a correspondent of the Country Gentleman the plan of raising calves pursued at Shaker Village", in Merrimac County, N. H.: We take the calves from the cows when six days old and feed them on two quarts of new milk three times a day, until they are four weeks old. The fifth week we gradually reduce the quantity of new milk and add skimmed milk, increasing the quantity by the close of the week to three parts at a feeding. All the new milk given to the calves should be taken from their mothers. t From the time they are five weeks until they are three months old they are fed on porridge prepared as follows: Half a pint of oat meal, one gill of cracked wheat, boiled one hour in six quarts of water; in cool weather a day’s allowance may he cooked at a time. To two quarts of this add two quarts of skimmed milk, making four quarts three times a day. The milk should be gently warmed to about the temperature of new milk, taking care not to scald it, as it will produce colic. If calves ihcline to scour, one or two raw eggs beat in their milk will generally effect a cure. We give four quarts of the mixture at a feeding until they are ten weeks old, then gradually diminish the quantity during the next two weeks, when they are weaned and turned out to pasture. From the time they enter the feeding pens until they leave for the pasture there is constantly kept by them a supply of roots —beets or potatoes, cut into long, thin slices. We prefer beets, as they prove to be the most nutritious. When grass cannot be procured, a cribful of early-cut or second-crop hay should be kept by them. The pens should be kept clean and dry; to do this they must be cleaned and new bedding put in every day. The calves you saw when in our place show the success of our plan of feeding. When eleven weeks old their average weight was 230 pounds.