WESTERN LAMB FEEDING 307 



slightly greater gains for food consumed. In gen- 

 eral sheep will consume proportionately about one- 

 fourth more than steers. 



There would thus seem to be considerable ad- 

 vantage in feeding sheep over feeding cattle, when 

 gains are considered and also fleeces secured, were 

 it not that death losses are higher among sheep and 

 also prices fluctuate considerably, sometimes feed- 

 ers being relatively high in the fall and ripe sheep 

 low in the spring. 



The correct management of a sheep feeding yard 

 is simple. There should be provided windbreaks. 

 It is an old saying that "the pig can see the wind" 

 and the sheep can certainly feel it through its thick 

 coat. Sometimes these windbreaks are formed by 

 long sheds, sometimes by high fences, made tight, 

 and sometimes they are of natural timber and 

 brush. Some of the best fat sheep the writer has 

 ever seen were fed in the old-fashioned way on 

 shock corn, in a bluegrass pasture that had been al- 

 lowed to grow up very high and thick, and where 

 open glades were interspersed with thickets of 

 hazel, oak and hickory. In this primitive solitude 

 the sheep found shelter and sustenance, feeding on 

 shock corn strewn in the open places where the wind 

 could not reach them. 



Water must be abundant and good and very ac- 

 cessible. Sheep will not thrive if they must go far 

 for their drink. 



It is a good plan to provide wide, flat-bottomed 

 troughs in which may be fed husked ear corn, since 



