492 Feeds and Feeding. 



ideal, producing high quality mutton. The Colorado Station 1 found 

 1 ton of beet pulp equal to 200 Ibs. of corn in fattening lambs, tho 

 when fed in large quantities it produced soft flesh. Griffin of that 

 station concludes that, owing to the excessive shrinkage of pulp-fed 

 lambs, they should be finished off on grain and hay without pulp. 

 There is little bone-forming material in beet pulp, and lambs long 

 fed on it are said to be weak-boned. It would seem that alfalfa hay 

 should make good this deficiency. 2 (89, 759) 



802. Fattening on wheat screenings. During the last decade 

 hundreds of thousands of Montana sheep and lambs were annually 

 fed on wheat screenings in Minnesota near St. Paul. The screenings 

 were fed in sheds, usually from self-feeders. Bits of chaff and straw 

 in the feed render it so bulky that little or no hay is required, and 

 the lambs do not surfeit as easily as on corn. During the season of 

 1902 3 about 330,000 sheep and lambs were fattened in these feed- 

 lots. Two years later the number fell below 200,000, and at the 

 present time, because of prohibitory prices for screenings and their 

 poor quality, Minnesota has ceased to be a factor of importance in 

 the winter mutton supply. (752) 



803. In the corn belt. During the winter of 1899-1900* over a 

 million "Plains" sheep were fattened in Nebraska alone. The sys- 

 tem is similar to that described for Colorado, 20,000 to 30,000 head 

 often being fed at a single point. From 2 to 3 bushels of corn are 

 required per day for 100 sheep. To this may be added a few pounds 

 of oil meal or other protein-rich concentrate. Alfalfa, sorghum, or 

 wild hay and corn stover are the roughages fed. During the feeding 

 period of about 100 days the sheep usually gain somewhat over 15 

 Ibs. per head. The industry is an irregular and uncertain one, the 

 profits depending upon the price of corn and the market. 



804. Feeding small bands. Fattening great numbers of lambs at 

 a single point reached its zenith nearly a decade ago when corn and 

 wheat screenings ruled low in price, and the large operator suffered 

 little competition from the ranchman or farmer in finishing range 

 lambs for the market. Now conditions have changed. The price of 

 feed has increased, and the fattening of range lambs in the grazing 

 districts is fast developing. In Montana and many other localities 

 sheep are put in a fair condition by feeding alfalfa hay and roots 

 without grain. 5 In South Dakota lambs are extensively fattened on 

 local grains barley, macaroni wheat, and emmer along with al- 



1 Bui. 76. 4 Neb. Bui. 66. 



3 Wing, Sheep Farming in America. 5 Wilcox, Farm Animals, p. 262. 



1 8 Breeder 's Gazette, Vol. 46, p. 1000. 



