Augusl, 1919
THE LANDSWOMAN
An Experiment in the Rearing of Calves on Whey and Meals*
J~G to t he lAck of lf'p tuated milk the rearing of oohP'I
0~
0
·the ch~'l'l"C·m:\klng farm presents Jrreatn difficultifls
Is t he o."'cc on tM bnttn-maldn~ fr.rm. The only tJy-
than uct AfJ'IIn~ from chl!<'v-maklng Is th~ whey, whl<'h is .-om-
prod11 regarded AS too dPflclrnt In nutr1b'\'E' matt.Pnr., hp-csnlly
n:g~mlnold~. to 8('1'VO n.s f!' ~atlsfacto:ry basss for calf·rearing, and
a
ucnUy lL'IUAlly g1vt-n to pl~ •
Is co~q
lndred been U!ll' cl for calve!! to some extent In
Wl -~akin~ dl'ltrlct", elthP.r M a drink for calYCe on gra•s
chN'a~ In some pnrts of Chr'lhl r<-, In the form of the ., 1l~'etmftl'"
~ilch r ise to thl'l aurfac4' whr n the whey I" h .. ated (cf. Leafl~t
H2 or Food Production Leatl~>t No. H ). Very lsttle pub·
~'~t<-d Information on the suhjl'rt I" a':aJL~ble, however, and it
:M thought dl''llr ablo tht'rr foro, in VlCW of the eon.s1derabl,.
w tr n!llon of chrc~·mnklng duri ng t he past two year~, that
f~rther expcriml'nt.al work 11hould lX' carried out without dl"lay.
rrangcment'\ wore accordl~lr. mado by the Board of Agrleul·
t.ro and F ishE>rles In the l'pr ng of 1918 for a eomprehemive
wst to be nuwlP, the rea ulto of which are summarised ln the-
t'('SOnt report. The R oard Is specially lndE>btRd to the authorl-
of UnlwMity College, Reading, for the fa.cilities provtdf'd
f r the ex per1mr nt, and to Mr. 8. Pcnnington, F.R .C.V <;;,
:hose expt"rt supervl"lon contributl"d c:o materially to 1t.s sucffP".
In deoidmg upon t he aupplementl\ry food!\ to be fed &long
w•th thr -whey, consider ation was ~ti ven prim.o.rlly to the dl tTerenCI s
In com~itfon bPt ween wholt' milk and whey which, on t he
avt'rage, m ay be takl'n to be a~ Indicated below:
h'\8
ftt's
Comp<><:ition of One Gallon.
Wh ole "ll1lk.
WatRr • •
Fat
• .
Albuminolds
Sugar ..
Mineral Salts
. •
. .
.•
. .
(Ash)
••
••
••
••
••
I
lb.
9 ·00
·40
·35
·49
·08
Whey.
lb.
9·55
·0~
·09
·52
·07
Jt will be seen from these figures that, compared with whole
milk, whey Is chiefly dctlc1ent in fat and albuminoids, and th.'\t,
in order to brm~ up the feeding value of one gallon of wh<>y
to that of one giillon of whole milk, an addition of ·~6 lb. (~ay
1 lb.) of fat (or oil), and ·26 lb. (sa.y i lb.) of albumi noid~ Is
ne~sary.
The deficiency of the wht>y in mineral ttalts (or ash), though
apparently trlviBl In amount, is ne~rthele~ import!lnt, since
it falls ma inly upon the phospharo of hme, which 1s so Important
for bone formation.
The ideal "cht'ese substitute " for use along with whey would
thus appt>ar to be a matRr1al or mixture ric h in oil, albuminoidc;
and pho<;pha~!. The matenal m ust be ooncen~rnl('d and
bighly digestible in order that too great a bulk of 1t may not
be necessary to supply the requisite amount'! of oil and albu·
minoids. In dev1sing the mixture for these expemn~nts the
a1 m kept in view wM to obtain a mb:ture. such tbllt llb. addtd to
1 gallon of whey would give a food approximatelv equal In
n utritive value to that of 1 gallon of whole milk. f n selecting
t he ma~rlals for the mixture attention was confi~d to those
which might be regarded as generally available for calf-rear1ng
purposes, only ono material (cod -liver meal) tlmt could n ot be
so described being tor a t1mo included In the tests.
Of single feeding-stuffs that approx•mate closely to t he re-
quirements outlined above, only ono is generallv avrulablE>-VIZ.,
linseed, 1 lb. of which supplies 0·35 lb. of 01l and 0·23 lb. of
albutnlnolds.
A S('OOnd matR.rlal to which attention was diroc~d as llk~:'ly
to be useful was cod-liver meal, the driedresidue from the manu·
facture of high-quality cod-liver oil. An analysis of thtl\ m at<>rlal
ahowPd no los5 than 4H J:l('r cent. of oil and 36·5 per cent . of
albumlnolds, ao that, although Rupplit's of tbo meal would not
warrant any l'('comn1l'nclntiou of its general use, it was thought
desirnble that, in view of t he known virtues of cod -liver otl,
some test of Its m t'r its for calf T~"MJog should lJe mndt'.
Apart from tht'se material9 it did not appear practicable t o
supply the whole dr tlclency of oil (t lb.) in the form of oil, Bnd
oonc;eque ntly for other " chet>S<> substitute~ " recourse w~ h ad
to mtxtures whkh \VOuld supply the deficiency p artly ID t he
• Ho:\rd
ot Agriculture
Le~e t.
form of oil and partly in the form of t£rch or o~r carbohyliraw.
If the nutr1tlve valuca of the nulk and ~ht>y be fl).lJfe· d In
terms. of the equivalent wthth~ of ct~rcll, the drtlelency in
nutnh~ value of 1 gallon of v.·ht'y a- compared v;tth t gallon
of. rn1lk 11 eq~.oival~'nt to p~tkally 1 lb. starch. Hence th•
m1xturea were o d~'vl d that 1 lb. would supply rouc:hly 1 lb.
albumlnt>lds and 1 lh. atard\ tqu.ivalent the latter t'l'quiremtnt
n~ceultatlng the inclusion !n each ea~ or' a r•roportion of n~.&te~al
n ch In oil (h~w.ed).
ln ord,.r tl) eruure nn ad~'quat~ euppty or phO!\JIMte of llmt'!
and at thP !!(!.me time to counteract. pnrtly any po"' ibl~ df>trf·
mental U'nd,.ncy of th~ acid1ty of t~ whey it wa~ dectdP-d to
add to the ration In e'-ery eage a '!mall quantity of precipitated
bont !lour.
Tht " ch"e"e substitute~" eventually decided upon for te•t
were as folio'" :
(1) Cocl·llver rne:~.J.
(2) Fish meBl, l~Jart: lill~"d meal, 2 part~.
(3) Coconut mtal, 1 part; liil'leCd Jll('al, 1 part.
(") • .Bean mu.l, 5 parU; U~d cake meal, 4 part".
(5) Cod-lrver meal, 3 partl; ft!h meal, 1 part: oatmeal, 3 r~rta.
(6) LI~Nl me3l, S parts; linseed cake meal, 2 parts.
(7) Cod liver meal, 3 part., bean meal, 3 parts: tbh meal,
1 part.
It was thouaht d~irable, before pr~ding to the experiment
proper, that some Information should be obtained as to the
diet'.ttc propertlrs and f!'CDeral swt&b•llty of these mixture~,
with a view to the tlimination or modifica-tion of any that mtgM
prove un.<~uit.'\ble. For the purpose of tbis pnlimin.ary quahta-
tl'\~ trial 8 alive!!, each a few da~ old, were obtained on llarch
16th to lOth, 1IH8, and, after about a fortnight's feeding with
whole m1lk, were put on dieU of whey and the above mixture!!,
one calf being used for each mixture. The eighth calf was gr~_ooen
)l.i~ Xo. 4 fed along with :.c:1lded whey. The 'ub6Utution
of whey for m1lk was in all ca~es etYected gradually in the course
of fourtR.en daY', at the end of WhiCh time each eaU wa.;; reoelvtng
dally 1 gallon of wbfoy and 1 lb. of the meaL With the one
exception Indicated, the whey was wl!.llned simply to atx?ut
blood·heat for feeding. WhPy wl\." received from the dAiry
e,·ery e\'enlng, and the acidity of each coruignment was de~r
mined before feeding throughout the experiment. Apa.rt from
a fe'W hot periods the acidity of the whey as receh-ed was usually
from lt to 21 degrees, rising to 31 to 6 degrees by the following
mornlng.
In addition to t he meal mixture, !'OCh calf reeeh~d daily abou\
i oz. of precipitatelf\3
su~quently fed on M1xture Xo. 6, and th:c oth~r lot (Lot Il.)
on )lixture No. 7, modified by <~ubstJtuting linseed menl for
cod liVl'r men.l.t
.
.
· t
1 ._ h d
I t will be notA'd that tiVl ~ndiv1dual cal.vcs m he&' o... a
not bren slmHarly tren.tRd in t he prece~tng per iod, but t~lr
progre~s ht\d been so u niform that no sen ous exception could be
taken to t heir being grouped M indtcated.
o n the samo day 16 new heifer cn.hcs W<'re o}?t~\ned, racb
about t hree days old . 'l'hecc were f<'d on whole milk until they
had attained :1n average of two 'M'!'ks, and wore tbrn ~roul){'d
into four lots of a'! nearly uniforn' chnrn.cter as I'IO'-"Iul~ In
wci ~ht and npl){'l\rance. ~·or the l'ubscquent feedi ng of tht'!'e
lot~ \lixtures No. 2, 3. 4 ~nd 8 were u~t>d
--~------
----
• \{h.ture as u_<~ed " 1th ~ood rl•«ult.<~ (fed .wit h water) in t'x~rl
ment <~ at t he ) {idland Agricultural a.nd J?atry Coll<'ge. ,
t The use of cod-In-er meal in th1s m1xture and in )\~ 5 wu
&bandoned a t t his s~e in "e" or tbt '\'t'ty &mall supplu Q
18-