ARTIFICIAL REARING OF CALVES ON PASTURE.

Two Feeding trials are described in which indoor and outdoor methods of rearing calves are com- pared. In a small experiment in 1953 Ayrshire calves reared on pasture from birth made similar weight gains (approximately 1 lb. per day) to control animals reared conventionally indoors. In an experiment in 1954 the outside-reared members of ten pairs of calves gained at a significantly slower rate (P<0l) than their pair mates reared inside. The dry-matter digestibility of the her bage on offer to the calves outside was high (<70%) throughout the experiment but, during August, in a period of particularly wet and cold weather, the amounts of T.D.N. consumed by the calves were less than their theoretical requirements. Concomitantly the worm burden of the calves increased to a critical level of 2,000 eggs per gram of faeces with associated symptoms of parasitic gastritis and loss of weight. The relation of environmental factors, particularly the interacting factors of climate, nutrition and worm parasites, to the growth of outside reared calves is discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]