Cattle, Sheep and Swine Feeders' Association. 425 



As winter approaches and green feed disappears get your 

 lambs on grain by increasing the feed gradually each day so that 

 the stronger kind of feed will not hurt or kill them. When you 

 have them up on full feed my experience is that it is best to 

 close them up in close lots and give them the feed in troughs; 

 don't allow them to travel out over the fields. They gain and 

 fatten much faster closed up. Make the troughs out of inch 

 lumber with 2x4's for legs, with 6-inch fencing plank for sides 

 and ends, and let the 2x4's extend up high enough for a top rail- 

 ing to keep lambs out of troughs. These troughs may be made 

 twelve or sixteen feet long and set in long strings, with an occa- 

 sional opening for sheep to pass. Such troughs are good for 

 any kind of feed — silage, hay or grain. 



It is very essential to salt your sheep. I prefer to have a 

 salt trough and keep salt in it at all times. In this case they get 

 salt when they want it. Some men have salt days, two or three 

 times per week, but this causes crowding and jamming when the 

 salt is put in and it may be that some do not get any at all. 



In feeding for the late market you need not get your lambs 

 before the last of November or up to January 1st, and carry 

 them along until February on a little oats and corn with plenty 

 of roughage, and finish them for market in the same manner of 

 feeding as with the early lambs. If you wish to run late into 

 April or May, you may clip them by March 1st if you have a 

 warm barn or shed. If you have grass in April allow them to 

 run on it, but keep up the grain if you want to make them good, 

 fat market toppers. I wish to impress you and make it emphatic 

 that the success and profit of sheep feeding is in making them 

 fat and selling at the highest price on the market. The man 

 that does this will make a success, love the business and want to 

 do more of it. 



In Missouri we usually feed lambs and yearlings mostly of 

 the Mexican type, but good western lambs are all right when 

 you do not get them too heavy to start with. Mexicans are 

 hardy, good gainers and very desirable in weights and quality 

 for the killers. My experience is that it pays better to feed 

 lambs than yearlings, as the markets are demanding more 

 lambs than older sheep and the gains are greater and prices 

 higher for the gains you put on. 



A good many farmers do not feed sheep for lack of experi- 

 ence in buying and handling. I can safely say that any good 

 farmer who handles his cattle and hogs well will make a success- 



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