380 FACTORS AFFECTING GAIN IN FATTENING 



States for fattening sheep and lambs. All of these give best results 

 when supplemented with a legume roughage. If they are fed with 

 carbonaceous roughages, a nitrogenous concentrate such as linseed 

 oil meal or cottonseed meal should form from 20 to 25 per cent 

 of the grain part of the ration. There may be exceptions to this last 

 statement when sheep (not lambs) are fed and when a succulent 

 such as corn silage forms part of the roughage. 



Of the various grains, corn, the feeding value of which has already 

 been discussed, is the best and most widely used. Wheat is seldom 

 used unless it is in such condition as to be of low value for milling 

 purposes. It compares favorably with corn, as it produces about 

 the same gains and requires only 2 per cent more total feed to 

 produce a pound of gain. 



Barley is used extensively in the West, especially in Colorado. 

 It is riot quite equal to corn as measured by rate of gain and the 

 amount of feed required to produce a pound of gain, but it com- 

 bines well with alfalfa hay. 



Emmer is being used as a sheep feed in the Dakotas and in the 

 northern Eocky Mountain states. Experiments indicate that it 

 .requires more feed and does not produce gains as rapidly as corn 

 and probably it is not quite so good as barley. Nevertheless, it 

 is a useful feed for fattening. 



Kafir corn is coming more and more into use as a crop in the 

 West and Southwest, and the indications are that it can be profit- 

 ably employed as a grain for fattening sheep. Cochel, of the Kansas 

 Station, compared 1 it with corn in feeding 56-pound lambs for 

 60 days. An average daily ration of 1.4 pounds 1 alfalfa hay, 

 1.1 pounds sweet sorghum silage, 0.19 pound cottonseed meal, and 

 0.9 pound whole kafir produced a daily gain of 0.35 pound, while 

 an equal amount of corn, replacing kafir, produced 0.40 pound gain. 



Oats are not widely used as a sole concentrate in fattening sheep 

 and lambs because they are usually high in price and they produce 

 growth rather than fat. If they do not ad'd too much to the cost 

 of the ration, they can be used to advantage when mixed with 

 other grains. If they are mixed with a heavy grain such as corn, 

 they serve to " lighten " the grain ration and make it more suitable 

 for lambs starting on feed. 



When two or more of the grains mentioned above are available, 

 there is no objection to making a mixture of them. In fact, there 

 is some advantage when variety is added to the ration. It is doubt- 



