379 



Experience teaches that lambs will do a good job 

 in picking a field of corn; in fact, pick it much cleaner 

 than is done by the average picker. Then, too', they 

 will eat the husks and leaves of the corn, and nearly all 

 the weeds that have gone to seed. They will clean up 

 the borders of the field that would otherwise remain foul 

 year after year. 



The sheep is peculiar in his habits. He prefers the 

 grain in its natural condition and it should be so fed, un- 

 less in case of a grain like millet seed when it should be 

 ground coarsely. 



Thousands of lambs were fed in South Dakota dur- 

 ing the past year, and if there were greater stability in 

 the lamb market I know of no other line of feeding where 

 larger profits will accrue than from fattening the lamb. 

 THE EXPERIMENT 



This experiment extended over two seasons, the fall 

 of 1914 and the fall of 1915. The object was to ascer- 

 tain to what extent corn silage could be added to the 

 lamb 's ration for the best results in fattening. 



Because of the large number of silos now being 

 erected in South Dakota, and because of the excellent 

 results obtained in experiments at this Station in feed- 

 ing cattle corn silage for a cheap preliminary gain, I 

 concluded information would be needed as to whether 

 lambs could be handled in a similar manner. 



There were 140 lambs used in this experiment. 

 Those for the 1914 test were home grown or native lambs, 

 while those for the 1915 test were western range lambs. 

 Each year they were fed in seven different lots of ten 

 head each. Each year lot I was fed corn silage as the 

 sole roughage. Each lot received the same grain ra- 

 tion, consisting of corn and oats mixed half and half by 

 weight. Lots II to VI inclusive were fed silage and 

 prairie hay, with their grain rations, in varying quanti- 

 ties; while lot VII received hay as a roughage with their 

 grain rations. 



The results are based on the average for both years, 

 and show plainly the value of corn silage when added to 



