382 Missouri Agricultural Report 



grain. With this roughness not more than one-half pound per 

 head of grain is required. A mixture of corn, oats and bran, equal 

 parts by weight, is an excellent mixture. This may be modified 

 by omitting the oats and feed two-thirds corn and one-third bran. 

 Sheep may be well maintained on clover hay and shock corn, but 

 on such a ration care should be taken not to feed more than one- 

 half pound of grain per head per day until after the lambs have 

 been dropped. 



The feeding of timothy hay or large amounts of poor quality 

 corn stover without a nitrogeneous roughage or some grain in the 

 ration is a bad practice. Ewes fed in this manner often suffer 

 from indigestion, and at lambing time the lambs come weak, the 

 ewes yield a small amount of milk, and the result is a large per- 

 centage of loss among the young lambs. 



Feeding shock corn is a practice to be generally recommended, 

 providing the fodder may be scattered widely over a good blue 

 grass pasture. If it is not well scattered the sheep will soon foul 

 the fodder to such an extent that they will refuse to eat it. If the 

 ewes go into winter in good strong condition and are fed as indi- 

 cated above they will come to lambing time in strong condition and 

 be able to rear successfully the lambs to weaning time. After the 

 lambs have been born the grain ration may be gradually increased 

 until the ewe is receiving one and one-half pounds of grain per day. 



LAMBING TIME. 



The most important time of the year for the shepherd is the 

 period during which the ewes are dropping their lambs. Skillful 

 attention and care at this time will yield greater results than the 

 same expenditure of time and labor at any other period on the 

 sheep farm. It frequently happens that ewes refuse to own their 

 lambs, and in such cases probably the best method of correcting 

 this is to put the ewe and her lamb or lambs into a small individ- 

 ual pen. These pens may be made of two panels four feet long by 

 three feet high, hinged together at one end and provided with 

 hooks at the other. These may be placed along the wall of the 

 sheep barn in such a way as to provide a number of small pens 

 four by four feet. 



This method of confining the ewe and her lamb in a small en- 

 closure is not always successful in making the ewe own her lamb. 

 In cases where the ewe persistently refuses to assume her maternal 

 duties, a stanchion, made on the plan of an ordinary cow stanchion, 



