Pratt's Practical Pointers on the Care of Livestock and PoultryPratt Food Company
Science
Pratt's Practical Pointers on the Care of Livestock and Poultry
Pratt Food Company
Livestock; Poultry
To carry growing animals through the winter so that they make no
increase and in some instances lose weight, to be made up the following
summer, is short-sighted policy and wasteful of food. If a stunted
condition is allowed at any time, increase is not only retarded, but the
capacity for future increase is also lessened.
The pastures for heifers should be abundant, or supplemented by soiling
food where they are short. This is specially necessary because the
heifers will then be pregnant, and because of the burden thus put upon
them in addition to that of growth, certain evils will follow.
In some instances calves are grown on whole milk and adjuncts, and are
sold at the age of 6 to 9 months. This is practicable when two or three
calves are reared on one cow. The meal adjuncts to accompany such
feeding may consist of ground corn, oats, bran, and oil meal, fed in the
proportions of, say 4, 2, 1, and 1 parts by weight. In some instances
they are kept two or three months longer, and when sold such calves well
fattened bring high prices.
The growing of baby beef is coming into much favor. Baby beef means beef
put upon the market when it can no longer be called veal and when
considerably short of maturity, usually under the age of 24 months. To
grow such beef properly animals must be given a good healthy start,
growth must not be interrupted and must be reasonably rapid, and the
condition of flesh in which they are kept must be higher than for
breeding uses. The process is in a sense a forcing one through feeding
of relatively large amounts of grain. Though kept in good flesh all the
while, the highest condition of flesh should be sought during the latter
stages of feeding.
When stall feeding begins, cattle are led up gradually during
preliminary feeding to full feeding. Full feeding means consumption of
all grain and other food the animal can take without injuring digestion.
A lean animal cannot be fattened quickly. Before rapid deposits of fat
can occur the lean animal must be brought into a well-nourished
condition. Preliminary feeding should cover a period of four to eight
weeks in ordinary fattening.
When cattle are to be finished on grass, they are usually fed a moderate
amount of grain daily the previous winter. The amount will be influenced
by the character of the fodders and by the season when the cattle are to
be sold. Usually it is not less than three pounds per animal, daily, nor
more than six pounds. Steers will fatten in much shorter time when
Pratts Cow Remedy is used. It causes them to quickly put on solid flesh,
due to its action on the blood, bowels, and digestive organs.
~COMMON DISEASES OF CATTLE~
The cow is generally healthy and if fed, stabled and cared for properly
she will seldom be ill.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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