Energy Additions to Skim Milk

Skim milk contains only about half the energy value of whole milk. It is not safe, however, to feed too much skim milk during the first month, because of the danger of causing scours. Therefore, when skim milk is fed immediately after the colostrum period, the energy intake for the first month or so is apt to be somewhat low and the gain in weight not so large as on whole milk. Calves usually make up this slower early gain.

In recent experiments at Beltsville, added energy has been fed in the skim milk for about 2 months, or fed in warm water if the calf has been weaned from milk. Corn meal, ground soybeans, oatmeal gruel, flaxseed jelly, or the same grain mixture as fed dry was fed mixed into the skim milk to different groups of calves. Starting usually with a quarter of a pound daily at from 5 to 12 days of age, the extra feed was mixed into the skim milk. The amount of feed was usually increased to a half pound in a few days and continued usually to 60 days and sometimes to 90 days.

The soybeans proved particularly unpalatable. The oatmeal gruel formed a pasty feces that stuck all over the calf. The corn meal was not very well cleaned out of the bucket, particularly when fed in warm water after weaning from milk, and there seemed to be more tendency to scour. Mixing into the skim milk the same grain mixture that was fed dry proved quite successful. In a few cases, as much as a half pound of the grain mixture was added to the milk before the calf was 10 days old, but we usually did not add as much as a half pound of grain daily until the calf was 15 to 20 days old. Usually, too, a half pound daily was as much grain as was added at any time to the milk or to the water after weaning from milk. However, the last three Holstein calves fed grain in milk were fed more than a half pound daily. With these three calves, the half pound fed in the milk by 15 days of age was increased to about a pound daily before 30 days of age. At 40 days, when these three calves had been weaned from milk for 10 days, they were eating a pound of grain daily mixed in the warm water and 2, 2.5, and 3 pounds respectively, as dry grain.

Twenty-three calves have been fed grain in milk as an energy supplement. Flaxseed cooked to a jelly in a little water, although more expensive, appeared to be the best energy supplement for skim milk.

Thirty-nine calves in the Beltsville experiments received about a half pound daily of dry flaxseed cooked to a jelly in water. With Holstein calves, a half pound of the dry flaxseed made into a jelly was usually safely added to the skim milk before the calves were 10 days old. Smaller calves seemed to do better if the increase to a half pound was not made until 12 to 15 days of age. The groups of calves fed either flaxseed jelly or a grain mixed with the skim milk made somewhat better average gains in body weight during the first month than did those calves that had in addition to skim milk only such amounts of grain and hay as they would Voluntarily eat from the manger. The gains of the calves fed the flaxseed jelly averaged a little better than the gains of the calves with the grain added to the milk. We found that the average gains of the group fed corn meal in the skim milk for added energy were almost as large as the gains of the group fed a grain mixture in the skim milk. Nevertheless, the corn meal is considered less satisfactory for the purpose than a grain mixture.

Is Added Calcium Needed f or Early-weaned Calves?

Fourteen pounds of skim milk contains about 7.5 grams of calcium, a generous contribution to the needs of the calf for this element. In the Beltsville experiments, the first calves weaned from skim milk at 60 days of age or earlier were fed a grain mixture containing 3 percent of bone meal when alfalfa as well as when timothy hay was fed. The excellent results, even when timothy hay (which is low in calcium) was fed, indicates that the calcium from bone meal satisfactorily replaces the calcium of the milk which is usually fed.

Calves weaned at 30 to 40 days of age and fed timothy or grass hay and a grain mixture without a calcium supplement showed rachitic or calcium-deficiency symptoms (not vitamin D deficiency, for the calves had cod-liver oil) within 2 months. More recently, 40 calves have been weaned from skim milk at 45 days or earlier. They received alfalfa hay with a grain mixture without a calcium supplement. Two or three of these calves ate very little hay during the first month after weaning and might possibly have been benefited at this period by the addition of calcium, but this is not at all certain. Blood-calcium analyses were made on several of the calves weaned at 30 to 45 days and fed alfalfa' hay without a calcium supplement. In only one case was there any decided lowering of the blood calcium after weaning. Calves weaned much before 6 months and fed grass hay definitely should be fed some added calcium until 6 months, when the calcium can be discontinued.

Protein

The grain mixtures fed to most of the calves weaned at an early age were grain mixture No. 75 (2 parts corn meal, 2 parts wheat bran, and 1 part linseed oil meal) and grain mixture No. 65 (3 parts corn meal, 2 parts wheat bran, 2 1/2 parts linseed oil meal and 2 1/2 parts of soybean oil meal.) Grain mixture No. 75 contained about 17 percent protein and about 0.14 percent calcium. Mixture No. 65 contained about 25 percent protein and about 0.20 percent calcium.

The calf's needs for protein are quite high and, of course, are amply supplied by the milk in the usual milk-feeding program. When milk is discontinued at an early age, a high protein grain mixture is necessary. In the few cases tried, the 17-percent mixture with alfalfa hay seemed adequate. Most of the calves fed alfalfa hay, as well as those fed grass hay, however, were fed the higher protein grain mixture because the calves seemed to eat larger amounts of this mixture during the first and second months, possibly because it was a little less bulky. While these experiments do not cover the point, probably even with early weaning from milk, farm-grown grains could replace the higher protein grain mixture when the calves are 4 or 5 months old, at least when alfalfa or other legume hay is fed.