LECTURE LV, 



FATTENING SHEEP IN WINTER. 



The fattening of sheep in winter furnishes a profitable in- 

 dustry to thousands of farmers, as well as to the large pro- 

 fessional feeders, who fatten any class of stock when they 

 consider market conditions right. Sheep, like beef cattle, 

 afford a means of condensing the products of the farm into 

 a concentrated market form; and fattening sheep are very 

 easily handled. 



The first step is to see that the sheep are free from scab, 

 lice or ticks. Scab means ruin to profits, and lice and ticks 

 seriously curtail the fattening tendency. The sheep should 

 be carefully examined for these troubles, and if they are 

 western sheep the safest plan is to dip them anyway, as 

 scab may be present in limited degrees perhaps only on one 

 or two animals yet it will spread through the flock like wild- 

 fire when they are fairly started on feed. The safest and 

 cheapest plan is to dip; and this is taken up in detail in a 

 later lesson. 



When sheep are fed on a very large scale, as is frequently 

 done in western Nebraska, or Minnesota, no sheds are pro- 

 vided, and the sheep are fed on the open fields, sometimes in 

 bands of ten or fifteen thousand. Picket fences through 

 which they can reach are provided, and hay is pushed up 

 to the fence once or twice a day. Grain is fed in shallow 

 troughs here and there in the lots. Under such general con- 

 ditions the grain is usually shelled corn, fed with prairie hay; 

 or under Minnesota conditions, wheat screenings and prairie 

 hay furnish the feed. 



The economy of such a plan of feed, and the eminently 

 satisfactory results it has given, commands it to all feeders; 

 but Iowa winters usually furnish cold, wet snows, chilling 

 winds, and more or less rain toward spring. Sheep must be 

 protected from this wet; hence for most parts of the state 

 sheds which will protect the sheep from the north winds, 

 and from wet snows or rains, are necessary. These sheds 



