FEEDING AND CARE OF RAMS 155 



shearlings are of uncompleted growth, it is important 

 that they shall be given good grazing until the season 

 for selling arrives. This does not mean, of course, that 

 the grazing shall be long, in the sense that good grazing 

 is understood for cattle, but that the range on which they 

 feed shall be sufficient to enable them to secure food 

 enough to keep them growing continuously and to main- 

 tain them in good flesh ; any kind of grazing that will do 

 this will suffice. 



Whether supplementary grain food should be given 

 will depend chiefly on the character of the grazing. Where 

 that is sufficient to insure good growth and a fair condi- 

 tion as to flesh, it would not be economical to add a grain 

 supplement. When rape furnishes any considerable pro- 

 portion of the pasture, the feeding of grain will not be 

 necessary. But because of the value of such rams, it may 

 be profitable to give them rape only as soiling food rather 

 than as pasture. When thus fed, the feeding may be so 

 controlled as to practically eliminate the danger of loss 

 from bloating. While such rams should be in good con- 

 dition of flesh, they should not be pampered. This is 

 even more emphatically true of such rams as are to be 

 sold for use on the ranges. 



Attention should be given to the tagging of sale rams 

 whenever called for during the season preceding that of 

 sale. Such attention should be given with great prompt- 

 ness, otherwise the tagging may deform the symmetry of 

 the fleece, which will injure the sale to the extent to which 

 it may be present. A certain amount of trimming will 

 aid in making sales, especially with the middle-wool 

 breeds. It is also important that such rams shall be shorn 

 as early as the weather conditions will admit of such 

 shearing. Early shearing relieves them of the burden of 

 that long fleece relatively which shearlings bear, and it 

 gives them greater length of fleece at the time for selling 

 than they would otherwise possess. 



Stock rams in summer The pastures for stock rams 



