Ration Experiments With Lambs, 1905-06. 



INTRODUCTION. 



This bulletin tells of experiments aimed to help in the 

 solution of certain definite problems confronting sheep feeders 

 of the State. Fattening lambs is not yet a real industry in 

 Wyoming, although here and there an individual tries it. 

 Feeding grain to stock sheep, however, is a rapidly growing 

 practice, and the question of an economical ration is a very 

 live one. Native hay has been used for so long as a winter 

 feed for sheep that it is difficult to overcome the inertia of 

 settled practices, and introduce the growing and feeding of 

 alfalfa hay. And the thought of corn comes so readily to the 

 mind of a man when he first begins to feed grain with hay, 

 that it is difficult to convince him that home-grown grains may 

 prove more economical than corn when fed with native hay. 

 Every bulletin upon lamb feeding at this Station has shown 

 results pointing to the superior value of alfalfa hay and corn 

 compared with native hay and corn. But the labor and ex- 

 pense of plowing up large areas of native grass sod and seed- 

 ing to alfalfa is so great that as yet few ranchmen having large 

 meadows are willing to do it. Also, many river and creek 

 bottoms which produce a good tonnage of native hay are un- 

 suited to the production of alfalfa. Thus there presents itself 

 the problem of finding what grain ration will best round out, 

 or balance, our native hays. This problem is the chief one 

 considered in this bulletin. In addition to this, field peas, 

 grazed off, are compared with alfalfa and corn in the hope 

 that they might prove to be an economical ration. And inci- 

 dentally, using the alfalfa and corn ration as a basis of com- 

 parison for the other rations, alfalfa is again compared with 

 native hav. 



