686 TOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



The death loss from all causes while on feed is about two and one- 

 fourth out of a thousand. 



It is not profitable to feed sheep over three months on a full feed of 

 grain. Sheep can not be kept a long time on a heavy grain ration like 

 cattle. After five months or even less they get so fat they die. 



If you wish to prolong the feeding period you must use a light sort 

 of feed; or use more hay and a limited amount of grain. This leads me 

 to a system of feeding resorted to in Colorado, Utah, and our own val- 

 leys, where alfalfa hay plays an important part. 



All this feeding of alfalfa hay is done in open pens without covering 

 of any sort, but the pens are placed in some well sheltered spot in some 

 ravine or grove of trees. 



In the large feed yards near St. Paul and elsewhere the grain is fed 

 to the sheep in great self-feeders where they can eat night and day if 

 they wish to. The sheep fatten very quickly under this system, but the 

 idea of feeding alfalfa hay is to prolong the feeding period by only giv- 

 ing a limited amount of grain each day, and thus put on a great amount 

 of fat at a small cost. 



Colorado feeders have come to Montana, bought lambs here, taken 

 them home, and fed them alfalfa hay and grain. Under their system of 

 feeding they have topped the markets of the east the past few years, 

 and have created a demand for their lambs that is astonishing. 



Suppose it is half past 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon, more grain is 

 fed as before. After their grain is eaten, back to hay they go, which is 

 again scattered for the fourth and last time. It is now getting dark in 

 the short fall days, and the water troughs, which have been kept full of 

 water all day are now emptied to keep from freezing. 



Sheep must be carefully trained to eat a particular sort of grain in 

 large quantities, and a sudden change is very disastrous. Any change 

 must be done carefully and slowly. 



LAMBS THAT PAID WELL. 



F. E. and E. D. Baker, Green county, Illinois, in Breeders' Gazette, 1905. 



The carload of Western lambs we had on the Chicago market Jan. 9 

 were part of 675 head raised in Utah and purchased on the Kansas CltF 

 market; 337 of these lambs were purchased Oct. 12, weighing 17,860 

 pounds at $4.15, and 338 Nov. 1, weighing 18,850 at $4.35. The total cost 

 of the lambs after paying commission, dipping and freight was $1,669.40. 

 When we received these lambs they were turned on a good blue-grass 

 pasture for two days when they were well filled and rested and were 

 then turned in a forty-acre cornfield in which there was a good growth 

 of dwarf Essex rape. The rape seed was sown broadcast just before the 

 corn was cultivated the last time at the rate of five pounds per acre. 



