UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION «w*. . _~_ ~- .__.*•■■• -r..«r- BENJ. IDE WHEELER, PRESIDENT COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE thqmas fqrsyth hunt Deananq D|rector BERKELEY H. t. VAN NORMAN, Vice-Director and Dean University Farm School CIRCULAR No. 196 March, 1918 DAIRY CALVES FOR VEAL By GOEDON H. TRUE and CLARENCE V. CASTLE A veal calf commanding the highest price on the market is one weighing from 140 to 160 pounds at an age of from six to eight weeks. The carcasses of such calves are characterized by flesh of light color and fine grain. The most important factors contributing to the value of a veal calf are condition and weight for age. While exceptionally thrifty calves may reach market weight of 150 pounds at even five weeks of age, the range of ages of veal calves is generally considered as being six to fifteen weeks. Some cities fix by ordinance the age of six weeks as the youngest at which calves may be marketed for veal. The following is a generally accepted market classification for veal calves. Market Classes Choice well fattened 120-160 lbs. 6- 8 weeks Good fat 110-200 lbs. 6-10 weeks Medium medium fat 100-240 lbs. 5-12 weeks Common thin 80-300 lbs. wide range The veal calf is a logical by-product of the commercial dairy. A commercial dairy is a herd of cows kept for the production of dairy products, milk, cream, butter or cheese. Many such herds are man- aged with a view to their maintenance or improvement by the raising of the heifer calves from the best cows ; the less promising heifers and bull calves go for veal. This is as it should be. In many other cases, the number of cows is maintained or the herd increased by purchase of mature cows, no calves being raised for the dairy. In either case the veal calf is a by-product that must be disposed of in one of three ways; killed at birth for hide and rennet, sold to be raised for beef, or fed for veal. The type or character of the calf should determine which of these three methods of disposition is the economic one and therefore con- stitutes the right practice. If the herd consists of high-class dairy cows, bred and built for the most efficient dairy production, no stock- man would argue that the calves should be raised for beef. It is true that in small towns there are still local butchers who pay as little for well-bred beef cattle as for the inferior dairy-herd animals, but this is not a satisfactory argument for raising a dairy steer or heifer for beef. It is a serious mistake, however, not to raise the heifer calves from such herds to supply the future need of dairy herds. Further- more, there is good reason to believe that the future demand for both cows and steers is to be greater than at present. If this is so, then a greater percentage of all the calves should be reared, notwithstanding the fact that the greater profit may be obtained by selling a larger percentage of them immediately. An important factor to be taken into consideration in determining whether or not a calf may be profitably fed for veal, is the birth weight. New-born calves at the University Farm have varied in weight from 33 pounds to over 100 pounds. Below are given a series of birth weights of calves of different dairy breeds : 27 Holstein bull calves have averaged 88.5 pounds. 13 Jersey bull calves have averaged 50 pounds. 10 Guernsey bull calves have averaged 71.5 pounds. 6 Aj^rshire bull calves have averaged 66 pounds. W. A. Henry and F. B. Morrison 1 state that under the intensive method of feeding veal calves practiced in Holland, one pound of weight is produced for an amount of milk varying from 8 to 12 pounds, according to the age of the calf. At the University Farm, six calves fed for veal have gained at the rate of 1 pound for every 7.1 pounds of milk. Each calf was fed an average of 11 pounds of grain for the period. Taking 8 pounds as the amount of milk required to produce a pound of gain, and 150 pounds as the weight to be attained before the calf is ready for market, it is of interest to note the difference in the cost of bringing calves of different birth weights up to market weight. This is shown in the following table : Birth weight of calf Amount of milk fed Value of milk fed (at $2 a cwt.) Veal, 9c per lb. Profit or loss on milk fed at $2 a cwt. 40 880 lbs. $17.60 —$4.10 50 800 1 1 16.00 — 2.50 60 720 1 1 14.40 — .90 70 " 640 i c 12.80 + .70 80 560 " 11.20 + 2.30 90 480 i c 9.60 + 3.90 100 400 ( i 8.00 + 5.50 Feeds and Feeding. The above figures do not take into account the increased value of the hide, the price of a hide under 15 pounds being 28c to 30c a pound at present. It seems clear then, that only in the case of calves weighing' 70 pounds or over at birth, is a fair profit to be made by feeding them on whole milk for the production of prime veal. With calves under this weight, it is an open question as to whether or not they had best be killed at birth and the skim-milk and grain upon which they might be grown to market weight at four or five months of age, be saved for feeding to swine. Assuming that the carcass of a new-born calf is of no value for human food, while at a weight of 150 pounds a calf has a market value, it is clear that the calf that starts at 100 pounds in weight makes market weight at one-half the cost of the 50-pound calf. In the light of present conditions and the facts set forth in the table above, the writers feel that it is proper at this time to urge owners of commercial dairies in which it is not contemplated that the calves be raised for dairy purposes, to use such bulls as will sire calves most desirable for veal purposes. The birth weights of calves of the different dairy breeds set down above, considered in connec- tion with the fact of the high reputation of Dutch veal, should suggest the use of Holstein bulls for this purpose. The writers know of at least one instance where such a plan is being followed with success. When one is following an established plan of breeding with a view to building up a dairy herd, no change is urged, but in dairies where the raising of calves is not contemplated, the interests of the public would be served at this time by a systematic attempt to increase the value of dairy calves for veal purposes by the method of breeding here suggested. For a calf worth feeding, the following practice is to be recom- mended : The raising of a veal calf must begin as soon as it is dropped. The cow should calve in a well-bedded box-stall which has been thoroughly disinfected with 5 per cent solution of cresol or a similar dip. In the summer a dry corral is just as good, as the sunlight kills all scour germs which are liable to infect the new-born calf. Soon after the calf is dropped the navel cord should be disinfected with a weak solution of iodine. It is sometimes better to wait until the calf has been dried off, as the cow may try to lick the iodine from the navel and get it to bleeding. These precautions should be taken to insure against navel infections and the usually resulting scours. If the cord appears well dried up in twenty-four hours, no more iodine need be applied unless the inner cord seems swollen, when it is of benefit to paint the swelling with iodine. If the navel becomes in- fected and suppurates, it should be washed out with 2 per cent cresol solution, once a day until healed. Powdering with boric acid will help to dry it up. It gives the calf a better start if it is left with the cow from two to five days, which can be done with economy, as the milk can not be used for human consumption for at least five days. If a calf shows signs of scouring, it should be taken away at once. It is sometimes hard to teach a calf to drink after it has been with the cow for such a period, but they will learn if shown correctly. Take the calf away from the cow in the morning and that night without scaring it, place a finger in its mouth and try to induce it to suck. If it sucks the finger, gradually lower the hand into the pail and allow it to suck the finger under the milk. The hand can gradually be withdrawn and the calf usually continues to drink. If the calf will not suck the finger or if it doesn't care for the milk, do not try to force it, but let it go without until morning when the same process can be repeated with the calf drinking the milk. It is worse than useless to try and force a calf to drink against its will. While the calf is learning to drink and for a few weeks afterwards, it is better to use its mother's milk. At the beginning a small calf weighing between fifty and seventy-five pounds should receive about four pounds of milk at a feed twice a day, while a large calf weighing between seventy-five and a hundred pounds should get from four and one-half to five pounds per feed twice a day. The milk must be either weighed or measured. A pint of milk weighs approximately a pound. At the time of teaching the calf to drink from the pail, its stomach is very delicate and is readily deranged by too large a feed of milk, which may have become cold or contaminated before feeding, so that for a few days at first, it is best to give only enough milk to a little more than maintain the calf. It is well to state here that feeding pails should be absolutely clean and the nearer blood temperature the milk is fed, the more the calf can stand and the greater will be the gains. Ordinarily a farmer has neither time nor warm milk to feed the calf at noon, and as too much milk is likely to be given if it is also fed at noon, it is generally safer to feed but twice. As a calf must have more food than simply for maintenance in order to lay on fat, more milk must be fed to obtain this result. The milk should not be increased for several days, and then it can be increased a half pound every other day until six to eight pounds at a feed are reached. When the calf is about two weeks old a little grain can be given ; when it is three to four weeks old it will eat from a quarter to a half pound per day. Barley ten parts, wheat middlings four parts, linseed meal one part, and cocoanut meal one-half part, will make a nutritious and palatable mixture. After the calf has learned to eat grain, a little choice alfalfa hay can be given it. But very little should be given until the calf is a month old, and then only as much as it will completely clean up, stems as well as leaves. Alfalfa hay is not as laxative when fed with whole milk as with skim milk, nor will the calf eat as much with the former as with the latter. Calves fed in this manner will make gains of from six to twelve pounds per week, on the average. Many Holstein calves will average two pounds per day. The older a calf gets, the faster will be the rate of gain if it receives sufficient feed, and at two months of age, some calves may gain as much as three pounds per day. Scours is the worst enemy of the veal calf. A calf which has suffered from a severe case of scours may require several weeks or a month longer than normal to reach the weight of a calf which has not been affected. As the profit from veal calves lies in getting maximum gains in the minimum time, it can readily be seen that a calf which has scoured it is probably raised to the veal size, 150 to 200 pounds, at an actual loss, over what would otherwise have been obtained from the extra butter fat fed in the milk, and at the same time it has not "the bloom" which a good veal calf should have. Careful observation, especially at feeding time, will prevent many cases of scours. The coat of the calf should always be sleek and the eyes bright. At feeding time it should be on its feet eager for its milk. If at this time, the calf appears listless and its coat looks rough, the milk should be reduced at once, and no more hay given until its appetite returns. One should be able to recognize scours in its in- cipient stage before it is shown by loose bowels, which may not be noticeable until twelve to twenty-four hours from the time the calf first showed a lack of appetite. After the scouring starts, it is some- times hard to check and it generally leaves the calf with a weakened digestive system. In order to insure against scours, it is best not to feed to young calves the milk from cows which have aborted or which have retained their afterbirths, since there is good evidence that the organism which causes these troubles is also responsible for many bad cases of scours. 6 When a case of scours develops in a young calf, which usually occurs during the first three weeks, cut down somewhat on the milk, and feed no grain or hay. The best medicine to give is formaldehyde diluted with thirty parts of water. Give about an ounce of this in a half cup of warm water every four to six hours. Infectious scours in young calves generally runs a course of from two to four days and it is best not to check the scours entirely but to keep up the calf's strength, pouring milk down it if necessary, and let it gradually get over it. If scours are checked too suddenly, it is generally a tempo- rary relief only and a relapse usually occurs. A little blood meal placed in the calf's mouth several times a day helps to keep up the calf's strength as well as acting as an astringent, and a tablespoonful in the milk night and morning is a very good tonic. If the calf gets very weak, an enema with hot water containing a little Lugol's iodine solution will bring relief. A hot-water bag and several feet of flexible rubber tubing are necessary to properly administer the enema. The so-called "white scours" sometimes develops before the calf is separated from the cow. This is due usually to one of several causes — the calf may have become infected from its mother's milk or from the mother through the navel cord, or from prenatal exposure, or from the germs usually found in dirty pens. If the first is sus- pected it is best not to use this cow's milk for young calves any more. When scours occurs take the calf away from the cow and keep it entirely away from the other calves as this scours is very infectious. The calf can be fed with a bottle until its appetite returns when it will learn to drink. A severe case of scours generally leaves the calf in such a weakened condition that it cannot usually be fed into profit- able veal and sometimes it is more economical to change the calf on to skim milk at about six weeks and by supplementing it with grain, raise a good calf which will do for the butcher at five to eight months of age. Calves not suitable for veal, because of small size at birth or be- cause of having been weakened by scours, when the system of dairying makes skim-milk available, may be profitably raised to a weight of from three to five hundred pounds at from five to eight months of age by proper methods of feeding. Thrifty calves may make more economical use of skim-milk than pigs because they are able to consume at the same time much more roughage than does a pig. This is a good argument against starving the calves to feed the pigs. The quantity of skim-milk fed can gradually be increased until from fourteen to eighteen pounds per day are being fed when the calf is three to four months old. Most calves will take care of from sixteen to twentv-four pounds of skim-milk a day, at this age. The grain should consist largely of starchy or low-protein feeds, such as barley, corn, oats and milo, with a little bran, cocoanut meal or middlings added to make it more palatable. From two to four pounds of grain per day is usually sufficient. Calves fed in this manner will gain from a pound and a half to three pounds per day on an average, depending upon the breed, individuality, and age of the calf, and will be at from five to eight months of age almost as sleek and fat as if fed on whole milk. When it is intended to raise the calf on skim-milk, it is best to keep it on whole milk until six to eight weeks of age, feeding from eight to twelve pounds of milk at the time the calf is to be changed to skim-milk. The calf should eat grain readily before being changed to skim-milk, as the carbohydrates of the grain must take the place of the butter fat taken from the milk. In making the change from whole to skim-milk, take at least a week. The change can be made quite rapidly until the calf is getting about one-half skim-milk, then do not reduce the whole milk for two or three days, until the calf adjusts itself to the change, when the whole milk ma} T be entirely reduced in a few days more. As soon as the calf is on skim-milk, it begins to eat more grain and hay, and if allowed all the alfalfa it can eat at this time, is pretty sure to get the scours. The alfalfa hay should be limited at first and some oat hay or straw can be fed to satisfy the calf's appetite. STATION PUBLICATIONS AVAILABLE FOR FREE DISTRIBUTION 1897. 1902. 1903. 1904. 1914. 1915. 1916. 1917. REPORTS Adaptation, md Grafting. Appendix to Viticultural Resistant Vines, their Selection, Report for 1896. Report of the Agricultural Experiment Station for 1898-1901. Report of the Agricultural Experiment Station for 1901-03. Twenty-second Report of the Agricultural Experiment Station for 1903-04. Report of the College of Agriculture and the Agricultural Experiment Station. Report of the College of Agriculture and the Agricultural Experiment Station. Report of the College of Agriculture and the Agricultural Experiment Station. Report of the College of Agriculture and the Agricultural Experiment Station. No. 230. 241. 242. 246. 248. 250. 251. 252. 253. 255. 257. 261. 262. 263. 264. 265. 266. 267. 268. 270. No. 113. 114. 115. 121. 124. 126. 127. 128. 129. 131. 133. 135. 136. 137. 138. 139. 140. 143. 144. 147. 148. 150. 151. 152. 153. 154. 155. BULLETINS No. Enological Investigations. 271. Vine Pruning in California, Part I. 272. Humus in California Soils. 273. Vine Pruning in California, Part II. The Economic Value of Pacific Coast 274. Kelps. The Loquat. 275. Utilization of the Nitrogen and Organic Matter in Septic and Imhoff Tank 276. Sludges. 2 77. Deterioration of Lumber. 278. Irrigation and Soil Conditions in the 279. Sierra Nevada Foothills, California. 280. The Citricola Scale. New Dosage Tables. 282. Melaxuma of the Walnut, "Juglans regia." 283. Citrus Diseases of Florida and Cuba 284. Compared with Those of California. 285. Size Grades for Ripe Olives. 286. The Calibration of the Leakage Meter. 288. Cottony Rot of Lemons in California. A Spotting of Citrus Fruits Due to the 290. Action of Oil Liberated from the Rind. Experiments with Stocks for Citrus. 291. Growing and Grafting Olive Seedlings. A Comparison of Annual Cropping, Bi- ennial Cropping, and Green Manures on the Yield of Wheat. CIRCULARS No. 156. 157. 158. 160. 161. 162. Correspondence Courses in Agriculture. Increasing the Duty of Water. Grafting Vinifera Vineyards. Some Things the Prospective Settler Should Know. Alfalfa Silage for Fattening Steers. Spraying for the Grape Leaf Hopper. House Fumigation. Insecticide Formulas. The Control of Citrus Insects. Snraving: for Control of Walnut Aphis. County Farm Adviser. Official Tests of Dairy Cows. Melilotus Indica. Wood Decay in Orchard Trees. The Silo in California Agriculture. The Generation of Hydrocyanic Acid Gas in Fumigation by Portable Ma- chines. The Practical Application of Improved Methods of Fermentation in Califor- nia Wineries during 1913 and 1914. Practical and Inexpensive Poultry Ap- pliances. Control of Grasshoppers in Imperial Valley. Oidium or Powderv Mildew of the Vine. Tomato Growing in California. "Lungworms." Round Worms in Poultrv. Feeding and Management of Hoes. Some Observations on the Bulk Hand- ling of Grain in California. Announcement of the California State Dairv Cow Competition, 1916-18. Irrigation Practice in Growing Small Fruits in California. Bovine Tuberculosis. 164. 165. 166. 167. 168. 169. 170. 172. 174. 175. 177. 181. 182. 183. 184. 185. 186. 187. 188. 190. 191. Feeding Dairy Calves in California. Commercial Fertilizers. Preliminary Report on Kearney Vine- yard Experimental Drain. The Common Honey Bee as an Agent in Prune Pollination. The Cultivation of Belladonna in Cali- fornia. The Pomegranate. Sudan Grass. Grain Sorghums. Irrigation of Rice in California. Irrigation of Alfalfa in the Sacramento Valley. Trials with California Silage Crops for Dairy Cows. The Olive Insects of California. Irrigation of Alfalfa in Imperial Valley. The Milch Goat in California. Commercial Fertilizers. Potash from Tule and the Fertilizer Value of Certain Marsh Plants. The June Drop of Washington Navel Oranges. The Common Honey Bee as an Agent in Prune Pollination. (2nd report.) How to Operate an Incubator. Control of the Pear Scab. Home and Farm Canning. Lettuce Growing in California. Potatoes in California. White Diarrhoea and Coccidiosis of Chicks. Small Fruit Culture in California. Fundamentals of Sugar Beets under California Conditions. The County Farm Bureau. Feeding Stuffs of Minor Importance. Spraying for the Control ©f Wild Morn- ing-Glorv within the Fog Belt. The 1918 Grain Crop. Fertilizing California Soils for the 1918 Crop. Wheat Culture. Farm Drainage Methods. Progress Report on the Marketing and Distribution of Milk. Hop Cholera Prevention and the Serum Treatment. Grain Sorghums. Control of the California Ground Squirrel. Extending: the Area of Irrigated Wheat in California for 1918. Infectious Abortion in Cows. A Flock of Sheep on the Farm. Beekeening for the Fruit-Grower and Small Rancher, or Amateur. Poultrv on the Farm. Utilizing, the Sorghums. Lambing Sheds. Agriculture Clubs in California. Pruning the Seedless Grapes.