72 SHEEP FEEDING 



have of profitably consuming feed in greatly varying pro- 

 portions. This, then, solves the problem for the farmer who 

 finds it wise to grow a large proportion of clover every year, 

 but does not like to sell it from his farm ; and equally well 

 can the big corn raiser feed out his corn to a bunch of sheep, 

 although he has to reduce the roughness fed to a minimum. 

 Undoubtedly some of the cheapest and most rapid gains are 

 made with a grain and pasture combination. If a field of 

 rape, late clover, or fall blue grass is available to sheep that 

 are on corn, some very satisfactory results may be expected. 



Short feeding. A phase of System V, inasmuch as it is 

 a barn-feeding proposition, that is practiced in southern 

 Michigan, Wisconsin, and Ohio, depends on the failure of 

 the original shipper to put his sheep on the market in a 

 finished condition. Some of the feeders in the states men- 

 tioned keep a constant watch at the stockyards for sheep 

 that have just been " warmed up " in a cornfield or shipped 

 so far that the heavy shrink takes them out of the fat 

 classes. When such lots are found these men, who often 

 have to compete with the packers for their purchases, take 

 the sheep out to their barns to be short-fed. 



Sheep-feeding barns. These sheep-feeding barns are gener- 

 ally built to accommodate from one to a dozen carloads of 

 sheep. The hayracks may be used as partitions between the 

 pens. Almost any arrangement of racks that allows the sheep 

 to eat without pulling the hay out is satisfactory, for in this 

 way waste is reduced to a minimum. If self feeders are not 

 used, feeding troughs may be placed in separate feeding pens 

 or in the alleyway, and the sheep turned from their hay 

 quarters to them at each feed. Water can be supplied at a 

 trough built between two pens. From five to seven square 

 feet of space should be allowed per animal. No pains can 



