Annual Meeting 1123 



larger crops. But our proposition is a ditfereut one. On my 

 own farm we are breeding sheep to found other flocks ; wo are 

 breeding rams to head other flocks and make them more valuable, 

 and in order to convince the world that they are top notchers, 

 we have to show them, and we have to tit them for show. There- 

 fore we give them the best surroundings and the best care and 

 feed. 



Sheep should not be crowded and kept in ill-ventilated build- 

 ings when they have to be housed. They should have proper 

 food and plenty of exercise. During the winter our ewes are kept 

 in the barn or sheds at night, but their hay is given thcni in 

 racks that are a short distance from the barns and in the open 

 lot, to induce plenty of exercise. 



We find that we can do best with early lambs. When our 

 ewe drops her lamb she and the lamb are put in a small pen by 

 themselves for three or four days, until she thoroughly knows 

 her lamb and the lamb knows its mother; then they are turned 

 with the rest of the flock. We partition off a small part of the 

 barn in which the lambs may go and the ewes cannot. The lambs 

 run back and forth, to and from their mothers. Before the 

 lambs we keep some ground oats and bran with which we mix 

 some crushed oil cake, and, as the lambs get a little older, some 

 sliced mangels and turnips are added. On this food they thrive 

 and grow fast. It is our idea to keep them growing all we can 

 from the time they are dropped, especially those we are fitting 

 for show. 



Their mothers are now given a grain ration twice a day, about 

 a handful each of a mixture of oats, bran and cracked oil cake, 

 with some sliced roots, which increases their flow of milk. Lambs 

 dropped during January, February and March, with this care, 

 should average from SO to 110 pounds each by the first of July, 

 and be ready to wean. I think we lost one lamb this last 

 year up to the time they were weaned. After that we lost two 

 ewe lambs killed by dogs, and one other ewe lamb that di(Ml a 

 natural death. 



When we wean the lambs we turn the mothers on the poorest 

 and driest feed we have and the lambs on new seeding or a 

 clover or alfalfa aftermath, and continue our grain ration. 



