298 SHEEP FARMING IN AMERICA 



The heaviest losses that ever occurred to the 

 writer came from feeding a large amount of oat 

 hay, not well cured, and on which had been put too 

 much salt in an effort to keep it from molding. 

 Very many lambs die from affections of the bladder 

 causing retention of urine, or " water belly/' 

 There is some evidence that the too free use of oat 

 hay will cause this. 



Many lambs are lost from indigestion caused by 

 feeding too much grain, or by introducing them too 

 suddenly to grain. Seventy-five per cent of all the 

 lambs dying in the feedlot die from indigestion 

 caused by over-eating grain. 



In investigating the causes of death losses the 

 writer has found these significant illustrations. 

 One man fed his lambs in the sheds, feeding corn, 

 clover hay and corn silage. He did nof feed too 

 much grain, but he did not turn the lambs out when 

 he fed them. Thus some of the lambs began eating 

 sooner than the others and naturally ate too much. 

 Another man had heavy losses because his lambs 

 had not enough good hay and too much moldy en- 

 silage. Had they had a sufficiency of hay it is 

 doubtful if they would have eaten the moldy por- 

 tions of the silage. It is not well to feed moldy 

 silage to any animals. We have lost lambs through 

 the carelessness of feeders in leaving the granary 

 door open. We have lost lambs from an awkward 

 arrangement of our sheds, having an L with a long 

 and narrow extension. This prevented perfect dis- 

 tribution of the lambs. Something frightened the 



