548 FEEDS AND FEEDING 



It will be noted that the yearlings yielded a slightly higher percent- 

 age of dressed carcass than the lambs. These wethers were thoroly fin- 

 ished, and thus their dressing percentage is higher than with sheep as 

 usually fattened for the market. 



841. Yield of dressed carcasses ; shrinkage. The slaughter tests at the 

 various stations in this country show that lambs and yearlings dress 

 from 48 to 57 per ct, depending on how completely they are fattened. 



Shaw 21 states that fattened lambs weighing over 100 Ibs., when 4 

 days in transit, will shrink 7 to 8 Ibs. per head; 1-year-old wethers 

 weighing about 120 Ibs., approximately 10 Ibs.; and aged wethers and 

 ewes about 12 Ibs. per head. 



During 4 winters Linfield shipped lambs and 2-year-old wethers fat- 

 tened at the Montana Station 278 to Chicago, a distance of about 1,440 miles. 

 The lambs, which averaged 87.5 Ibs. in weight when shipped, shrank 

 7.6 per ct. on the average, the range being 4.6 to 8.7 per ct. The 2-year- 

 old wethers shrank somewhat less, averaging 6.8 per ct. with a range of 

 5.1 to 8.6 per ct. The older sheep yielded 2.2 per ct. more dressed car- 

 cass. On shipping lambs fattened in 4 trials on corn and either clover 

 hay, alfalfa hay, corn stover, soybean straw, or timothy hay, with and 

 without the addition of a nitrogenous supplement, Carmichael and Ham- 

 mond of the Ohio Station 28 found no variation in shrinkage attributable 

 to the ration. Lambs shipped 135 to 149 miles shrank 1.3 to 6.8 per ct. 



When sheep are marketed off pasture, especially rape, excessive 

 shrinkage from scouring may be prevented by giving dry feed for a 

 day or more prior to shipping. The grain ration should be decreased 

 for the same reason. Oats is an excellent feed for sheep in transit. 



842. Wool production. A general discussion of the factors concerned 

 in the production of wool has already been given in Chapter VI. (151-2) 

 It has there been pointed out that lambs which are so fed that they 

 make larger growth yield more wool. This is shown in a trial by Wilson 

 and Kuhlman at the South Dakota Station 29 in which adding linseed 

 meal to a ration of corn, oats and prairie hay (an unbalanced ration, low 

 in protein) increased the gain 37 per ct., reduced the feed required for 

 100 Ibs. gain, and increased the yield of wool 9 per ct. On the still 

 better ration of corn, oats, and alfalfa hay, the lambs gained 72 per ct. 

 more, required only three-fourths as much feed for 100 Ibs. gain, and 

 produced 60 per ct. more wool than those fed the unbalanced ra- 

 tion. This well shows the importance, both for growth and for wool 

 production, of feeding lambs balanced rations. (845, 857) 



Formerly it was the common practice in many districts to wash sheep 

 before shearing, by driving them repeatedly thru a stream or by hold- 

 ing them in the water and squeezing the dirt out by hand. Such wash- 

 ing is of no benefit to the manufacturer, for the wool must in any event 

 be scoured to remove the wool fat, before it can be used, and the wash- 



"Management and Feeding of Sheep, p. 365. 28 Ohio Buls. 187, 245. 



Buls. 47, 59. ^Information to the authors. 



