552 FEEDS AND FEEDING 



Cottonseed or Unseed meal as supplement to corn 



Feed for 100 Ibs. gain 



Average ration Initial Daily Concen- Hay 



weight gain trates 



Lbs. Lbs. Lbs. Lba. 

 Unbalanced ration, 90 lambs* 



Corn, 1.2 Ibs. Timothy hay, 1.0 Ib 64 0.23 520 448 



Balanced ration, 90 lambs* 

 Corn, 1.2 Ibs. 



Supplement, 0.2 Ib. Timothy hay, 1.0 Ib. 64 0.30 463 334 



*Average of 1 trial by Carmichael and Hammond (Ohio Bui. 245), 1 by Hays (Minn. Bui. 31), and 2 

 by Skinner and King (Ind. Bui. 162). 



Supplementing the carbonaceous ration of corn and timothy hay with 

 0.2 Ib. of protein-rich cottonseed or linseed meal per head daily, increased 

 the gains and lowered the amount of feed required for 100 Ibs. gain. 

 Lambs will go off feed more readily when corn is fed without being 

 properly supplemented by some protein-rich feed. On the other hand, 

 in these trials the lambs fed corn and legume hay or corn, carbonaceous 

 hay, and a nitrogenous supplement had good appetites at all times. 



845. Corn alone and in combination. Altho corn and legume hay 

 alone have given excellent results in numerous experiments and in ex- 

 tensive commercial feeding, many maintain that the animals have better 

 appetites and are less subject to digestive disorders when a variety of 

 grains is used, especially toward the close of the fattening period, or 

 when lambs are being forced on heavy grain allowances. In starting 

 sheep on feed it is, without any question, advisable to mix a more bulky 

 concentrate, such as oats or wheat bran, with the corn, to prevent diges- 

 tive trouble. Whether there is any benefit in adding other feeds to corn 

 for variety when the lambs are on full feed seems to be doubtful, for in 

 trials reviewed later (851), just as good results were secured with corn 

 as the sole concentrate, when fed with clover hay and corn silage, as 

 with a combination of corn and oats. Much of the trouble experienced 

 in feeding corn as the sole concentrate is due to its improper use with 

 carbonaceous roughage and without any nitrogenous supplement. 



Lambs grazing on bluegrass pasture were fed corn meal alone, both 

 before and after weaning, in comparison with others fed either corn 

 meal and oats or corn meal and peas, in trials by Craig at the Wis- 

 consin Station. 2 Fully as large and economical gains were secured on 

 corn alone as on the mixtures. With these lambs the protein necessary 

 to balance their ration was furnished by their dams' milk and the 

 pasture grass. 



846. Feeding corn in various forms. Several trials have been carried 

 on at various stations to determine the most profitable form in which 

 to feed corn to fattening lambs. In trials at the Iowa Station 3 Evvard 

 found that grinding corn was uneconomical, for larger profits and just 

 as rapid or even more rapid gains were secured where ear corn, broken 

 ear corn, or shelled corn was fed. There was also no advantage in feed- 



2 Wis. Rpt. 1897. 3 Proc. Am. Soc. Anim. Prod., 1915-16, pp. 242-51. 



