2l6 MANAGEMENT AND FEEDING OF SHEEP 



grain feed for long periods, lest the digestion should be 

 impaired, but it is an excellent food when properly com- 

 bined with other grains. Speltz has a feeding value not 

 far below or different from barley. Canada field peas 

 are excellent, but feeding them can only become general 

 in areas south and west where they are plentifully grown. 

 The sorghum seeds furnish a rich food and they may be 

 fed in the head without being threshed out. While cow- 

 peas and soy beans are excellent food for sheep when 

 fattening, the market price puts them almost out of reach 

 of the feeder in the meantime. Screenings are an ex- 

 cellent and a safe food, as has been shown time and again 

 in the experience of those who have fed sheep by the 

 hundred and the thousand at the stockyards. 



Some of these foods will fatten sheep in reasonably 

 good form when fed alone, especially when the roughage 

 fed is of a character that will make the ration approxi- 

 mately balanced. These include corn, oats, peas and 

 screenings. Usually, however, better results will be ob- 

 tained from feeding these in combination with some other 

 food or foods. When more than two are combined, the 

 foods are eaten with more of a relish than when a less 

 number is fed. Some food when present in the grain 

 ration will in nearly all instances add to their feeding 

 value though present in limited quantity. Wheat bran 

 is one of these, but it is less relished by sheep than some 

 other foods and, therefore, should be fed only in moderate 

 quantities. Oilcake is another, and though highly rel- 

 ished, the price forbids feeding it heavily. These aid in 

 maintaining health, more especially when the animals are 

 subjected to high pressure feeding. Cottonseed meal may 

 be fed instead of bran or oilcake, but when fed heavily 

 it is not so safe a food as these. Oats also aid in keep- 

 ing the digestion in tone. When oilcake cannot be had, 

 a less amount of flaxseed will answer, though not quite 

 so well, in its stead. 



When clover, alfalfa or other leguminous fodder is 



