BULLETIN 



OF THE 



Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station 



NUMBKK 270 FEBRUARY, 1914 



EXPERIMENTS IN WINTER LAMB PRODUCTION 



PART I: RATIONS FOR EWES AND LAMBS 

 PART II: COST OF PRODUCTION 



By J. W. HAMMOND 

 INTRODUCTION 



The hothouse lamb is a special product for which the demand 

 at high prices is rather limited, yet the production of such lambs is 

 an industry which has proved profitable on a number of Ohio farms. 

 Many sections of Ohio not only have access to transportation facili- 

 ties necessary to deliver the lambs to market in good condition, but 

 also possess the sheep from which to raise the lambs, and the feeds 

 to produce lambs of prime quality. The fact that the prices paid 

 for hothouse lambs in the eastern cities the last year or two have 

 been lower than those paid in some preceding- years emphasizes 

 the importance of keeping in mind the possibility of an over-pro- 

 duction of this commodity. However, young lambs during the 

 winter are a delicacy for which there doubtless always will be a 

 good demand in western as well as in eastern cities, and the pro- 

 duction of such lambs offers possibilities even though prices should 

 not be maintained at the level of former years. 



The term "hothouse lamb" frequently leads to the very 

 erroneous impression that such a lamb is a delicate creature, requir- 

 ing special care and artificially heated buildings. On the contrary, 

 the hothouse lamb is very robust. Artificially heated, or even 

 especially warm, buildings are not at all necessary. The term 

 ""hothouse" has probably been applied to such lambs because they 

 are produced at a season when lambs are not ordinarily produced, 

 and in this respect are comparable to the artificial or out-of-season 

 products of hothouses or green-houses. 



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