SHEEP 



587 



cent and the females, 50.1 per cent. 

 Large lambs are carried a little longer 

 by ewes than medium or small sized 

 lambs. Single lambs at birth are much 

 larger than twins and twins larger than 

 triplets. 



In records secured at the Missouri sta- 

 tion, the size of the lamb at birth ap- 

 pears to be influenced entirely by the 

 size of the mother, large lambs being 

 produced by heavy ewes and vice versa.' 

 The size of the rams or breed appear 

 to have no influence on the size of the 

 lamb at birth. Male lambs at birth are 

 usually a little larger than ewe lambs. 

 The heavy lambs make more rapid gains 

 for the first few weeks than lighter 

 lambs. 



Vitality of lambs of different breeds 

 — This varies considerably. At the Wis- 

 consin station, Southdowns dropped 78 

 per cent of strong lambs; Shropshires, 

 59 per cent; Shropshire-Merinos, 73.4 

 per cent; Dorsets, 60 per cent. With 

 the Shropshires, however, 19 per cent 

 were triplets, which probably accounts 

 in a measure for the number of weak 

 lambs. The Shropshire Merino ewes 

 gave 15 per cent of triplets. 



Milk yield of ewes — At the Wisconsin 

 station, Oxfords yielded 3.1 pounds of 

 milk a day; Southdowns, 1.9 pounds; 

 Dorsets, 4.5 pounds; Grade Dorsets, 4 

 pounds, Shropshire and Grades, 3.5 

 pounds; Merinos, 1.9 pounds; Shrop- 

 shire-Merinos, 2.5 pounds; the average 

 of 14 ewes of all breeds was 2.8 pounds 

 daily. The milk contained on the aver- 

 age, 7 per cent of fat and 18.1 per cent 

 of solids. 



Age and productiveness of ewes — 

 The age of the ewe appears to have an 

 influence on the number of lambs pro- 

 duced. Thus two-year-old ewes at the 

 Wisconsin station gave an average in- 

 crease of 158 per cent; three-year-old 

 ewes an increase of 174 per cent; four, 

 five and six-year-old ewes, 178 per cent, 

 while with seven-year-old ewes, the per- 

 centage increase dropped again to 150 

 per cent. The older ewes at the station 

 drop the larger proportion of ram lambs. 

 Generally speaking, when ewes have 

 reached an age of seven or eight years, 

 they have passed their period of great- 

 est usefulness and should be fattened for 

 market. 



The increase secured with the differ- 

 ent breeds was as follows : Shropshires, 

 169 per cent; cross-bred Dorset-Shrop- 



shires, 162 per cent; cross-bred Shrop- 

 shire-Merinos, 153 per cent; Southdowns, 

 151 per cent. The average increase 

 from all ewes in station flock for 12 

 years was 163 per cent. 



The increase secured in the flock 

 noted above is for the mutton type of 

 sheep under well managed conditions. 

 The ordinary farm flock will not aver- 

 age over 100 per cent increase, while 

 under western range conditions an in- 

 crease of about 80 per cent is considered 

 a fair average. There is no reason, 

 however, why every farmer should not 

 secure an increase of at least 125 to 160 

 per cent in his flock annually. Expe- 

 rience shows that in ordinary flocks 

 about 4 per cent of the ewes are barren 

 and about 3 per cent to 4 per cent more 

 abort. Such ewes should be culled out 

 of the flock immediately and be fat- 

 tened for mutton. By careful attention 

 to this matter, and the selection of stock 

 for breeding, born from mothers which 

 produced twin lambs, the annual in- 

 crease in the flock can be greatly aug- 

 mented. 



Feed of ewes after lambing — When 

 ewes lamb before they en be turned 

 out to pasture, they should be liberally 

 fed on grain, hay and some succulent 

 foods like roots or silage. Roots are 

 preferable, but silage is the cheaper. 

 About 2 pounds of good clover or al- 

 falfa hay a day will be required for 

 each ewe and 1 to 2 pounds of grain. 

 The grain should be made up largely of 

 oats, barley or bran with a little oil 

 meal added. The oil meal is especially 

 desirable if succulent foods are not 

 available. For succulent foods 4 to 5 

 pounds of silage or 5 to 8 pounds of 

 sliced roots may be given; such a ration 

 will produce a heavy flow of milk. Ewes 

 with twin lambs should receive heavier 

 grain rations than ewes with a single 

 lamb. 



The ewe should be turned out to pas- 

 ture as soon as the grass gets a start 

 and the grain rations gradually reduced, 

 and finally omitted entirely, as the pas- 

 ture becomes more abundant. Careful 

 experiments at the Wisconsin station for 

 a number of years in feeding lambs at 

 pasture has shown that it is not profit- 

 able to feed grain to the ewes at this 

 time, as the lambs do not make any 

 greater gain where the ewes are fed 

 grain than where they are not. The 

 ewes do not get quite so thin if grain 



