240 TYPES AND MARKET CLASSES OF LIVE STOCK 



price of a fitted ram must include the cost of fitting, which may 

 be a considerable amount. It is, of course, a fact that the very 

 choicest rams are highly fitted before being offered for sale, as 

 no flock owner expects to realize full value for an exceptional 

 ram unless he is presented in finished and fitted form; however, 

 this applies to the best offerings and is somewhat outside of the 

 matter under consideration. When rams are purchased to head 

 ordinary flocks the produce of which are sent to market, it will 

 usually be best to pay up to the limit of price for a field ram that 

 suits, rather than invest the same amount in a fitted sheep. 



Only purebred sires should be used on any flock, and the 

 same breed should be patronized each time a ram is purchased; 

 in other words, breeding for the market should not result in a 

 mixture of breeds, but the owner should breed in line, grading 

 up his flock by consecutive crosses of the same breed. Thus will 

 the good features of that breed be so strongly stamped upon the 

 flock as to give it a high average of individual merit and great 

 uniformity. 



In farm flocks one ram may be used for every 35 to 50 ewes. 

 On the range it is customary to use one ram for every 35 to 

 40 ewes. A ram lamb should not be used for heavy service. 

 The period of gestation for ewes is somewhat variable but is 

 usually 146 days. Although ewe lambs are sometimes bred 

 in the fall so that they will lamb the next spring at a little over 

 a year old, the usual plan is to allow the ewe lambs to grow 

 and develop into their yearling form, breeding them in the fall 

 to rope their first lambs the following spring at two years old. 

 The breeding of ewe lambs is not ordinarily considered good 

 practice. 



The mutton breeding ewe. Assuming that there is an 

 established ewe flock to which additions are made from the 

 best ewe lambs of each year, the problem of the breeder is to 

 weed out the less desirable ewes and send them to the butcher, 

 Herein lies a second advantage from the use of good males, 

 for if the sire proves a successful breeder, the owner is furnished 

 with excellent material with which to replenish his ewe flock, 

 thus permitting closer culling of the aged ewes than would be 

 possible, had an inferior ram been used. Hence, the use of a 

 good ram not only results in direct improvement in the first 

 crop of lambs, but there is the added advantage of the indirect 

 improvement which is realized when the best ewe lambs reach 

 breeding age. 



