GENERAL PROBLEMS IN SHEEP HUSBANDRY 549 



ing does not lower the cost of scouring nor improve the quality of the 

 wool. (151) The price paid by a manufacturer for any lot of wool is 

 based merely on the estimated yield and quality of scoured wool. 



As the practice of washing sheep still persists in some localities, Ham- 

 mond studied the matter in a trial extending over 2 years at the Ohio 

 Station. 30 He found that a sufficient premium is not usually paid for 

 washed wool to offset the reduction in gross pounds of wool yielded and 

 the labor of washing, a difficult and unpleasant task. 



In the corn belt and eastward sheep are usually shorn between the 

 middle of April and the middle of May, when the weather has become 

 settled and chere have been a few days too warm for the comfort of un- 

 shorn sheep. The yolk has then risen into the wool in sufficient quantity 

 to make it ' ' full of life ' ' and to make shearing easy. If shearing is de- 

 layed too long, the wool becomes dead and lifeless, the sheep suffer from 

 the heat and are troubled more with maggots about the breech, due to 

 the wool becoming foul. 31 Hammond found that sheep shorn each year 

 on April 12 yielded 0.16 Ib. more scoured wool than those shorn on 

 June 1, but 0.71 Ib. less wool in the grease. 



To prevent injury to the wool, feeding racks should be so constructed 

 that seeds and chaff will not lodge on the neck and shoulders of the 

 sheep, and the feed lot or barn must be kept well bedded, so that the 

 wool will not become soiled. 



Fattening lambs and sheep are often shorn either before being placed 

 on feed or during the early part of the fattening period, for the purpose 

 of stimulating their appetites and making them more comfortable. This 

 practice is followed especially when the animals are on feed late in the 

 spring and the weather becomes warm, or when lambs are purchased 

 early in the fall to be turned into corn fields and stubble fields. 



Various experiments conducted at the Indiana, Michigan, Nebraska 

 and Wisconsin Stations 32 show in general that lambs or other sheep which 

 are clipped will not usually make materially larger or more economical 

 gains than if unshorn, unless the weather is so warm that they would be 

 uncomfortably warm otherwise. They should never be shorn during 

 cold weather, unless good shelter is available. Before shearing, one 

 should find out the probable difference in price there will be between fat 

 clipped and undipped sheep, and also know about how much wool he 

 will secure by clipping and the price it will bring. Often the margin be- 

 tween clipped and undipped sheep is so great that clipping is unprofita- 

 ble, even tho it may cause the animals to make a trifle more economical 

 gains. On the other hand, a person who is posted on market conditions 

 can not infrequently make a good profit by clipping the sheep before 

 they are sold. If clipped, more sheep can be shipped in a car. 



30 Ohio Bui. 294. 31 Coffey, Productive Sheep Husbandry, pp. 322-3. 



32 Skinner, King, and Starr, Indiana Buls. 168, 202, 221; F. B. Mumford, Mich. 

 Bui. 128; Gramlich, Nebr. Buls. 167, 170 and information to the authors; Craig 

 Wis. Rpt. 1904. 



