132 MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF SHEEP 



will be relished, but much waste will follow from feeding 

 sorghum that is coarse. 



Before the lambing season it is not usual to feed 

 roughage more than twice a day in the form of hay. But 

 the practice is commendable which adds straw of the 

 cereals for the noon feed. What is left of this in the feed 

 racks should be used as litter to spread over the sheds or 

 yards. It may be necessary to supplement this with other 

 litter, as a comfortable and dry bed is greatly conducive 

 to the welfare of sheep in winter. In some instances corn 

 fodder, sorghum fodder or Kafir corn fodder is strewn 

 on the frozen ground for the noon feed, that the sheep 

 may get food and exercise while consuming it. Under 

 other conditions, it is fed in racks, usually out of doors. 



In the larger portion of the United States, succulence 

 can only be furnished for sheep in two forms as field 

 roots or as silage. But in areas far southward, they may 

 graze during much of the winter on foods sown to pro- 

 vide such grazing, as rape and kale, and the same is also 

 true of the Pacific slope west of the Cascade Mountains. 

 Field roots are more suitable than corn ensilage, but in 

 the absence of the former the latter will be materially 

 helpful. Succulence in some form is, in a sense, a neces- 

 sity, and the aim should be to provide it on the arable 

 farm. In its absence, it is usually advantageous to feed 

 bran or oil cake along with the grain fed. It is not neces- 

 sary to feed a large amount of succulence before the 

 lambing season, not more than three or four pounds per 

 day of roots or silage; the latter must be free from 

 mold, or abortion and other ills may follow. Some feed- 

 ers use more roots, but it has been noticed that when 

 large quantities are fed along with clover hay, the lambs 

 are large but deficient in vitality at birth. This is less 

 apparent when straw is used freely as a part of the fod- 

 der ration. The roots are sliced or pulped, as a rule, be- 

 fore feeding them, and are most frequently fed directly, 

 and without admixture, but in some instances grain is 



