592 FEEDS AND FEEDING 



grain. Plenty of salt and fresh water should always be supplied fatten- 

 ing lambs and sheep. 



900. Length of feeding period. Usually 75 to 100 days or longer are 

 required to produce the desired finish on western lambs, less time be- 

 ing needed for yearlings. During this period the lamb should gain 20 

 to 30 Ibs. a head. This gain added to a lamb weighing originally 55 

 to 65 Ibs. brings it to the size desired by the market. Formerly the 

 market called for a large lamb, but now the demand is for plump ones 

 weighing from 80 to 90 Ibs., or even less if they are from the western 

 ranges. As soon as lambs are ripe, or when the back and the region 

 about the tail seem well covered with fat, they should be sold, for 

 further gains cannot be made at a profit. Ripe lambs fed a heavy grain 

 ration at the North Dakota Station 2 * gained only 0.8 Ib. each in 4 weeks, 

 returning a heavy loss instead of profit. 



If one is fattening more than a single carload of lambs at the same 

 time, it is wise to sort out and market the fleshiest lambs before the 

 others are finished. While it is important to market lambs as soon as 

 they are finished, it is just as important not to sell them before they are 

 sufficiently well fleshed to bring a good price, as many farmers do, per- 

 haps owing to lack of feed. 



901. Rations for fattening lambs; cost of gains. From the many trials 

 reviewed in the preceding chapter, the feeder can readily determine 

 the best combination of feeds to employ under his local conditions. The 

 tables showing the amount of feed required for 100 Ibs. gain will en- 

 able, him to compute the approximate cost of gains with feeds at market 

 prices. It should be remembered that the results presented were se- 

 cured with thrifty lambs, fed by skilled feeders and under good con- 

 ditions. The feed required for a given gain will therefore often exceed 

 the amount stated. Comparing the cost of gains, it will be found that 

 lambs give better returns for the feed supplied than do steers. The 

 gains of mature sheep will cost from 25 to 30 per ct. more than those 

 of lambs. 



902. Proportion of concentrates. Under conditions thruout the corn 

 belt and the eastern states, it is usually most profitable to give fat- 

 tening lambs a liberal allowance of grain after they have been brought 

 onto feed, in addition to all the good roughage they will clean up. They 

 will then reach the desired finish and sell at a higher price than if they 

 had been less thoroly fattened. Even with corn at the high prices of 1917 

 to 1919, in trials at the Indiana Station 25 by Skinner, Starr, and Vestal, 

 giving fattening lambs a full feed of corn was more profitable than 

 feeding a half allowance of corn, or than feeding no corn the first 

 50 days and then full feeding corn thereafter. Each lot was fed all 

 the corn silage and clover hay they would clean up, and enough cot- 

 tonseed meal to balance the ration. Tho the cost of gains was less in 

 some instances where the allowance of corn was restricted, this was 



24 N. D. Bui. 28. ^Ind. Buls. 221, 234, and 256. 



