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Show remove the grain mix from their diet at about 10 months of age. Starting the week of birth, you may feed good quality alfalfa hay free choice. During the pasture pas-ture season, you may permit the calves to graze pastures, if you provide them access to alfalfa hay. Dairy Head Gives Suggestions For Feeding Calves properly managed. Other research and experience exper-ience has shown that you may be able to obtain substantial savings by substituting other feeds for milk if you do it with caution. These feeds include commercial milk replacer, some non-salable milk that is sour or contains an antibiotic residue but is not gargety or clabbered, and colostrum that has been permitted to ferment. Other research has shown that "pickled" colostrum can be fed successfully if it is diluted with equal parts of water just before feeding and fed at rates suggested sug-gested for milk or milk replacer. Begin soon to feed a nutritious dry calf starter supplement of about 18 to 20 percent protein. Give it to the calf free choice up to a maximum of five pounds daily. At about one month of age you may start adding a simple grain mix and still get good growth on the calf. Increase the proportion of grain until it has totally replaced the starter when the calf is about four months of age. Five pounds of the supplement is sufficient for growth. If the heifers are growing grow-ing well, you can gradually Feeding dairy calves is both an art and a science. It requires know-how and experience. Above all, it musl be done with consistent care. It is not a task to leave to the children. One successful Utah dairyman dairy-man stated, "How those calves are raised to provide replacements replace-ments for the herd means the difference to me between profit and loss, between success and failure in the dairy business. We constantly must keep in mind that we are dealing with a newborn new-born baby that is highly susceptible suscep-tible to indigestion and infections." infec-tions." Dr. George E. Stoddard, head, Department of Dairy Science, Utah State University, says to avoid digestive troubles, one rule is paramount; never overfeed over-feed milk or fluids to the calf, especially at a young age. The temperature of the milk is not critical. Though most successful dairymen prefer to feed it about body temperature, others have had equally good success feeding feed-ing it cold. Whichever you choose to use, be consistent. He says your calves are apt to have less gastric upsets if you feed them with nipple pails or nipple bottles than if you feed them with open pails. Be careful to properly clean and store all equipment after each feeding. The most important feeding of the calf's life will do most to save its life. That's a feeding of colostrum soon after birth. The calf may suckle it or you may milk it out and feed it to the calf. Remember that colostrum contains important antibodies to protect the calf against local disease organisms. The calf can absorb these into its system for 12 hours or more after birth if this is the first feed it has consumed. con-sumed. Colostrum is also high in vitamin vita-min A or carotene and other nutrients and it promotes normal nor-mal function of the intestinal tract. That colostrum not needed need-ed for the newborn calf may be diluted with equal parts of water and fed to other non-weaned non-weaned calves. You may freeze some for later use with calves whose mothers do not provide any colostrum. Feed the calf about four quarts of milk and or colostrum daily, depending on its size. Most dairymen use two feedings a day. But research at the USU Dairy Farm has shown that calves will do well when fed once a day if the feeding is |