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Updated: May 23, 2025
Hay-tea, juices of peas and beans, or pea or bean-straw, linseed beaten into powder, treacle, etc., have all been sometimes used to advantage in feeding calves; but milk, when it can be spared, is, in the judgment of the Scotch breeders, by far their most natural food.
After the first week, the proportions of milk and hay-tea may be equal; then composed of two-thirds of hay-tea and one of milk; and at length, one-fourth part of milk will be sufficient. This food should be given to the calf in a lukewarm state at least three, if not four times a day, in quantities averaging three quarts at a meal, but gradually increasing to four quarts as the calf grows older.
With respect to the use of hay-tea often used in this country, but more common abroad, where greater care and attention are usually bestowed upon the details of breeding Youatt says: "At the end of three or four days, or perhaps a week, or near a fortnight, after a calf has been dropped, and the first passages have been cleansed by allowing it to drink as much of the cow's milk as it feels inclined for, let the quantity usually allotted for a meal be mixed, consisting, for the first week, of three parts of milk and one part of hay-tea.
Many now begin to give linseed-meal mixed into hot water, to which is added some skim-milk or buttermilk; and others use a little bran cooked in hay-tea, made by chopping the hay fine and pouring on boiling-hot water, which is allowed to stand awhile on it. An egg is frequently broken into such a mixture.
At the expiration of the third month, the animal will hardly require to be fed by hand; though, if this should still be necessary, one quart of the infusion given daily which, during the summer, need not be warmed will suffice." The hay-tea should be made fresh every two days, as it soon loses its nutritious quality.
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