Missouri Sheep Breeders'' and Feeders' Association. 471 



however, everyone who has sheep on the farm will be interested 

 in the results. 



The corn belt feeder is considering more seriously each year 

 the best method of disposing of his crops and at the same time 

 conserving the soil fertility. One of the great losses at present 

 on the farm is the failure to secure the full value of the roughage 

 necessarily produced in the growing of grain. While cattle 

 are pre-eminently the great coarse roughage consumers, sheep 

 and lambs, while not eating corn silage in nearly so great quan- 

 tities as cattle, will consume much larger quantities of hay per 

 1,000 pounds live weight than will the cattle. As a means, 

 therefore, of disposing of hay sheep are fully the equal of cattle 

 and ofTer a channel for the disposition of the corn crop and at 

 the same time seldom fail to return a profit on the feeding opera- 

 tion when proper management is used. 



Too often, however, we find that proper management is 

 not used. Often a man who has had little or no experience with 

 sheep or lambs goes to market in the fall and brings down a load 

 of lambs or sheep for the purpose of cleaning up the farm, eating 

 weeds, waste grass, maybe a crop of rape sown in the corn, etc. 

 He brings them to his farm, turns them on grass and for a while 

 everything may go well. After a month or so, however, the 

 first storm of approaching winter arrives. The feeder is not 

 prepared for caring for the lambs, he has no shed without turn- 

 ing other stock into the weather, or possibly no shed at all; con- 

 sequently the sheep are sent to market at a time when grass 

 sheep are still coming and when other feeders under conditions 

 similar to his are also unloading. The result is what could 

 naturally be expected. The market papers report an abundance 

 of "scenery-fed" lambs, and there are more recruits added to 

 the force of farmers who say "sheep don't pay." Practically 

 every fall the market has, just as winter sets in, a flood of lambs 

 that have been running in cornfields or late pastures and that 

 are not more than half fat and either go to the packers at almost 

 feeder prices or are reshipped to the country for further feeding, 

 but usually, in either case, at a loss to the former owner. Often, 

 too, more sheep are bought than can properly be cared for, and 

 when winter comes part of them must be put on the market. 

 Do not understand me to say that having sheep or lambs run 

 on the green forage is a mistake, because it is not. In fact, it 

 is the very thing to do. Some of the cheapest gains that can 

 possibly be made on any class of stock can be made with lambs 



