FEEDS FOB SHEEP 575 



bage may be useful. (379-80) Both rutabagas and turnips are widely 

 grown in Great Britain for grazing. Shaw suggests that these crops 

 should be profitable for winter grazing in the southern states. (370-1) 

 It is pointed out in the next chapter that the fattening of lambs in corn 

 fields is a growing practice. (904) Usually rape is seeded in the corn 

 fields at the last cultivation or soybeans may be grown with the corn. 



875. Rape. Thruout the northern states, rape is more widely grown 

 for sheep than any other annual pasture crop. (381) If sown early, it 

 will furnish good grazing before the lambs are old enough for market. 

 Rape should not be pastured until it has reached a height of 6 to 10 

 inches, and it should be borne in mind that grazing the crop too closely 

 will kill the plants before the end of the growing season. 



As rape may cause bloat in sheep, the precautions previously men- 

 tioned should always be taken in pasturing this crop. (872) Allowing 

 lambs to graze on rape when it is wet or too immature may cause scours. 

 It is best to keep sfceep, and especially lambs, off from a field of rape 

 drenched with dew or rain until the leaves are dry. Often flockmasters 

 cut rape and feed it as soilage, instead of using it as a pasture crop. 

 This is safer, but takes considerable labor. Rape may be pastured late 

 in the autumn, even after it freezes, providing the sheep have been ac- 

 customed to it before it freezes. Otherwise the frozen rape may cause 

 some deaths. 



As Coffey points out, 86 three methods are commonly used in growing 

 rape for fall feeding. First it may be seeded as the sole crop ; second, 

 it may be sown with oats at the rate of 2 Ibs. of rape seed to the acre ; 

 and third, it may be seeded in corn at the last cultivation at the rate of 

 about 3 Ibs. per acre. When there is sufficient moisture, rape sown in 

 oats grows rapidly after the oats are cut and furnishes feed that is 

 ready to be pastured by the first of September. A good growth of 

 rape in corn depends on seeding early, on the supply of moisture and 

 on the density of the corn foliage, but if the corn is to be pastured 

 with sheep, it usually pays to sow rape, for around the edges of the 

 field at least there will be a good growth of it, which will be large 

 enough for pasturing by the middle of September or the first of Octo- 

 ber. (904) 



To determine the value of rape for lambs, Shaw grazed 3 lots of 71-lb. 

 lambs on rape at the Ontario Agricultural College. 87 Each lot of 15 

 lambs was grazed for 58 days on an acre of rape. One lot, which re- 

 ceived no other feed, gained 0.39 Ib. per head daily and the acre of 

 rape produced 344 Ibs. of gain on the lambs. A second lot, which had the 

 run of a grass pasture adjoining the rape plot, gained 0.47 Ib. per head 

 daily, showing a decided advantage for the combination of grass and 

 rape. A third lot fed 0.5 Ib. oats a head daily made but little better 

 gains than the lambs on rape alone. The question of feeding grain to 

 lambs on pasture is discussed in detail in the following chapter. (896) 



'"Productive Sheep Husbandry, p. 388. ^Ont. Agr. Col. Rpt. 1891. 



