Studies on the rearing of calves weaned from milk between two and four weeks of age

Abstract

To wean calves early and then feed them dry meal, hay and water is thought to have a number of advantages over more conventional methods of calf rearing. These advantages include: a considerable saving of milk or milk substitutes, an early build-up of the microbial population of the rumen (thus permitting the use of simple inexpensive foods), and the saving of labour concomitant with early weaning. Accordingly, a number of small experiments were set up to test the practicability of early weaning, the effect of different dry feeds and of a variety of types of flooring for calf pens.