THE FARMKRS' HANDBOOK. 



balanced feed as oats, however. Tt will give better results if fed with 

 lucerne chaff than with oaten or wheaten, or a small ration of meal may 

 be combined with wheaten chaff to create the balance. 



Wheat. — Much used in feeding sheep by both methods. Pretty well 

 equal in value to maize. Best if fed with lucerne chaff. General remarks 

 on oats as feed apply to maize and wheat also. 



Bran. — A most valuable feed for breeding ewes. Keeps the digestive 

 tract in sjood order, and, being fairly rich in nitrogeneous matter, can be 

 used with wheaten or oaten chaff without the addition of grain. A small 

 chaff and bran ration of roughly equal parts, trough-fed, is very useful 

 when sheep are on scrub or dry innutritious fodder. 



Chaff (oaten and wheaten). — Has not the same value as lucerne, but is a 

 »ood bulk food. Really good chaff, as produced in this country, can be fed 

 alone, and will provide good sustenance without additional food, though it 

 is better to add bran for breeding ewes. Poor chaff is not very much better 

 than straw. 



Straw. — Can be very largely utilised in the feeding of sheep : and while 

 barley straw is probably the best, oat and wheat straw can both be made 

 use of. Its palatability is greatly increased and its nutritive value raised 

 if <nven with molasses. If a lucerne ration is being fed, straw can be 

 used to replace portion of this ration without lowering the value of the 

 ration to a serious extent. 



Silage. — Silage is always of value. To obtain the best results some 

 portion of the feed should be dry roughage, such as lucerne hay or >traw. 



Linseed and other Meal". — Supplied in small quantities to sheep being 

 trough-fed on chaff or straw, these can entirely replace bran and grain, as 

 they are rich in nitrogenous material and in mineral salts. 



Improved Feeding Methods Necessary. 



These notes apply to the feeding of sheep in dry periods with a view to 

 preventing mortality apart from actual starvation — although, as already 

 indicated, nearly all such mortality is really at basis slow starvation. 

 It it not intended here to discuss feeding from the point of view of fattening, 

 but it may advisedly be pointed out that so long as our shee,p are exposed to 

 the extremes of feeding which exist in New South Wales, so long must 

 heavy mortality be expected. The maintenance of food supplies on a more 

 even basis would prevent a very great deal of this mortality, and though 

 such ideas are impracticable to a great extent in the case of the large 

 sheep-run, they are not so on many sheep farms. The most obvious methods 

 of ensuring it are the conservation of hay and silage, the subdivision and 

 spelling of paddocks, and the growing of crops for grazing. The future 

 must inevitably see a great increase in the application of such methods of 

 reducing mortality. 



As already pointed out, much loss occurs from continued dry feeding, 

 and yet further loss is involved in the sudden change to extremely succulent 

 food. Surprise is often expressed that mortality in sheep is so heavy 

 after the appearance of what is referred to as good food, but as a matter 

 of fact such rapid-growing, succulent food as appears after copious rains 

 following drought possess very little body, and in the already weakened 



