358 GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS IN FEEDING 



some reason have been obliged to move. Feeders in the far West 

 sometimes exhaust their supply of grain and then move up to the 

 accumulating stations for finishing. 



There are also specialized plants quite different from the accumu- 

 lating station, of which the plants located at pea canning factories 

 are good examples. At the time the peas are canned, the pea hulls 

 and vines are made into silage by a very simple and inexpensive 

 process. No silo is needed, and all that is necessary is to stack them 

 neatly and tramp them well. The silage is unusually palatable to 

 sheep and lambs and when used with fattening concentrates and a 

 little dry roughage produces an excellent market finish. 



Nature of the Business of Sheep Feeding. Whoever under- 

 takes to feed sheep and lambs should realize that there is a hazard 

 in the business. In other words, both risk and chance are involved 

 in it to a certain extent. Risk arises from the probability of losses 

 during the feeding period and of low gains for the feed consumed. 

 Chance arises from the probability of high prices for feeders and of 

 low prices for fat sheep or lambs or vice versa. It is hardly fair, 

 however, to call- the businesss of sheep feeding purely speculative 

 when conducted by those who follow it regularly year after year. 

 But it is speculative when it is conducted by those who do not in- 

 tend to follow it up regularly, and who engage in it only because 

 they have an impression that the conditions surrounding it are such 

 as to assure large profits irrespective of the lack of skill with which 

 it is conducted. 



It has often been said that the success of the feeding operation 

 depends largely upon buying well and selling well. By this is meant 

 that the selling price per hundredweight should be considerably 

 higher than the purchase price. Unless the market for feeders be 

 unusually low, no one can be reasonably sure of a much higher 

 market for fat sheep and lambs than for feeders. There are certain 

 indications, however, as to the future of the market which should 

 be studied. Some of these indications are as follows : 



First, the number of feeder sheep and lambs that are being sent 

 to the country from the markets* If the supply of feeders seems to 

 be small it is more than likely that prices will be high both for 

 feeders and for fat sheep and lambs. Under such circumstances, 

 one should exercise caution in buying, and he should be reasonably 

 sure that the total supply of feeders is small before he makes his 

 purchase. 



