324 PRODUCTIVE FEEDING OF FARM ANIMALS 



Feeding Lambs. The dam's milk generally forms the sole 

 feed of lambs during the first two or three weeks of their lives ; about 

 this time they begin to nibble a little grain or hay, and should have 

 access to both thereafter. A lamb creep should be provided where the 

 ewes cannot eat the feed intended for the lambs ; the creep or pen 

 may be built at one side or corner of the barn with two boards, 1 x 

 6 inches, of the desired length, to which are nailed vertical 'strips, 

 1x4 inches wide and 3 feet long. The slats are placed far enough 

 apart to let the lambs slip through. A low, flatbottom trough is 

 placed within the space set apart for the lambs on which the grain 

 is fed, like ground oats, bran, cracked corn, a little linseed meal, etc. 5 

 Pure water should be supplied regularly. A creep should also be 

 provided for the lambs as the ewes and lambs are let on to the 

 pasture in the spring, where they may find their grain feed. This, in 

 addition to the dam's milk and pasture, will enable them to make 

 a rapid and healthy growth. The ewes will not, however, need any 

 grain when on good pasture. In experiments at the Wisconsin 

 station 6 it was found that lambs fed grain up to ten months old 

 reached a given weight four to seven weeks sooner than when no- 

 grain was fed before weaning time, and the lambs were ready for 

 the market at any time during this period, so that advantage might 

 be taken of favorable market conditions. In experiments with dif- 

 ferent grain feeds for unweaned Shropshire lambs for periods 

 averaging ten weeks 0.3 to 0.4 pound of grain was eaten daily, 

 with resulting average gains of about one-half pound per head 

 daily. The following amounts of different grain feeds were re- 

 quired per 100 pounds of gain in body weight: Wheat bran, 71 

 pounds; corn meal (4 trials), 74 pounds; whole oats, 78 pounds; 

 and cracked peas, 81 pounds. Unweaned lambs that go into the 

 breeding flock should receive feeds like oats and peas, wheat or bran, 

 while corn is preferable for lambs intended for the butcher, as it 

 tends to produce a fat carcass. 



Stomach worms are a common sheep disease east of the Mississippi, 

 especially in lambs, and are a serious drawback to American sheep raising. 

 The eggs of the worms are distributed over the pasture in the droppings of 

 the sheep, where they soon hatch and are taken into the system of the sheep 

 while grazing. Old infested pastures, especially blue-grass, are tp be avoided 

 in feeding sheep, and these are changed to clean, fresh pasture every two or 

 three weeks, if possible, during the summer months. Rape pasture and other 

 annual crops will prove of great value where the permanent pastures have 

 become infested with worms. Where sheep are suffering from stomach 

 worms, either of the following remedies may be resorted to: Gasoline, 



5 Kleinheinz, " Sheep Management," p. 65. 



6 Reports 1896 and 1903. 



