Rensselaer Union, Volume 1, Number 42, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 15 July 1869 — Summering Young Calves. [ARTICLE]

Summering Young Calves.

The first summer is the important one for calves. If they come through it in good, sound, thrifty condition, their future rearing is easy. If they get pot-bellied, out of shape, and stunted, a year will be lost in their development and growth, and they will never be »o good as they would have been had they kept growing from their birth. The secret of success in raising calves is to keep them thrifty from the very start. Let them never get a check, and they will pay in the end for the extra care, A frequent mistake is to turn calves out to grass too early. Thi y have to eat a large amount of succulent food, to supply to their imperfected digestive organs a sufficient amount of such nutriment as they can use, and they develop enormous paunches, out of all proportion to their frames. By frolicking they expend, in muscular waste, material that should go to help their growth, and by becoming over heated they disarrange their entire systems. Later in tbe season, on stinted), draught-parched pastures, they are often as much starved by the want of food as they were earlier by the want of ability to make complete use of what they did eat. Calves should not be weaned on grass, unless constantly with their dams,., and receiving a bountiful supply of milk late into the season. Good rowen hay, (or cured grass,) which contains.a large proportion of nutriment that the young stomachs can easily appropriate, and & liberal feeding, twice or three times a day, with skim milk— withholding water, so that they will drink the more milk—is the best bill of fare for at least four months. At the end of that time, they may, unless the weather is excessively hot, be gradually accustomed to a short and fine pasture, until they will thrive on that alone. —American Agriculturist.