384 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



cheapest mutton is made from grain fed to lambs before weaning. 

 In attempting to feed grain to lambs, a lamb creep or separate pen 

 should be provided, into which the lambs may go, but from which 

 the ewes are excluded. In this way the lambs will early learn to 

 eat a large amount of grain, and this should be continued until the 

 lambs are sold on the market. 



At the present time there is a good market for well fattened 

 lambs at any season of the year. The highest priced lambs are 

 those weighing fifty to sixty pounds, and ready for sale from the 

 first of May until the first of July. Such lambs are called "hot- 

 house" or "winter" lambs, and bring a very high price in the city 

 markets. In order to produce such lambs, it is important that the 

 lambs be dropped in January or February. 



FATTENING SHEEP AND LAMBS. 



The finishing of feeder sheep and lambs has developed into a 

 business of large proportions in the corn belt in recent years. 

 Feeders buy in the western markets lambs, yearlings or wethers, 

 ship them to the feed lots of the corn belt and feed them for a 

 time until they are fat and send them to market. This has proven 

 a very profitable practice. 



FEEDER SHEEP. 



There are two sources of feeder sheep for the man engaging 

 in a sheep feeding business — the western sheep to be purchased 

 in the great western markets and the natives which may be pur- 

 chased in most localities in the State. The most common classes 

 of feeder sheep in the market are lambs, yearlings and wethers. 

 The different grades of lambs are variously known as fancy se- 

 lected, choice, good, medium or common, these names being used 

 to designate the quality, breeding and condition of the feeder 

 lambs. Yearlings are graded as choice, good or common, wethers 

 as choice, good, medium or common. There are also offered on 

 most markets three other classes known as bucks and stags and 

 ewes. The most successful feeders have quite generally come 

 to regard the western feeder sheep as much more desirable than 

 the natives. They are more free from diseases, more uniform in 

 size, age and breeding and are fattened in large flocks more suc- 

 cessfully. 



