BREEDING HABITS 



65 



to produce lambs at the time desired by the owner. Such breeds 

 are especially useful to those who desire to grow fancy lambs out of 

 season in order to supply a high-priced commodity to a limited 

 few. If, as it seems, ewes are induced to a certain extent to come in 

 heat by the cool of the autumn nights, it may be that there are 

 localities in which climatic conditions will cause ewes to breed out 

 of their normal season and perhaps twice a year. Summer nights 

 in the hills may correspond to the autumn nights on the plains and 

 by moving ewes from the plains to the hills, one may succeed in 

 breeding them out of normal season. 



FIG. 34. Sheep enjoy being on high places. 



A ewe remains in heat for about two days ; if she is not bred, or 

 if she fails to get in lamb from the service of the ram, the period of 

 heat, or cestrus, recurs in approximately sixteen days. On this point 

 there is variance of opinion and some writers mention twenty-one 

 days as the length of time between cestrus periods. In the Middle 

 West of the United States, however, the intervening time, although 

 varying all the way from twelve to twenty-eight days, is most often 

 sixteen days. In case the ewe is not bred, she is likely to recur in 

 heat regularly for three or four months, beginning in late summer 

 or early autumn and continuing until late December. 



About one hundred and forty-six days is the normal gestation 

 period for ewes. At the Illinois, Wisconsin, and Ohio Stations, it 

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