SHEEP 



589 



body and then cutting off with a chisel 

 on a block. The loose skin falls back 

 over the cut stub and heals over neatly. 

 The tail of the sheep is a useless ap- 

 pendage, difficult to shear and likely to 

 get besmeared and unsightly in time of 

 diarrhea. All males should be castrat- 

 ed except those kept for breeding pur- 

 poses. Details for castrating lambs are 

 given in Part III. 



With farm flocks, docking and cas- 

 trating the lambs are done when the 

 ewes are sheared. Under northwestern 

 range conditions this is a separate oper- 

 ation, usually done before shearing the 

 ewes. About 10 days after shearing, 

 the whole flock, including the lambs, 

 should be dipped to free them from 

 ticks. Most of the ticks will have left 

 the shorn ewes by this time and be on 

 the lambs. If not dipped, the ticks will 

 annoy the lambs all summer and hin- 

 der their growth. Details for dipping 

 are given in Part III, under sheep dis- 

 eases. 



Feeding young lambs — To secure a 

 rapid, strong vigorous growth in lambs, 

 they should be fed a small amount of 

 grain in addition to the milk of the ewe. 

 They learn to eat when two or three 

 weeks old, and should have a pen or 

 lamb creep by themselves. A pen can 

 easily be arranged with openings into 

 it wide enough for the lambs, but too 

 narrow for the ewes. The pens should 

 be arranged with racks and troughs into 

 which grain, minced roots, and a fine 

 quality of hay may be put. The best 

 grains for feeding at this time are 

 ground corn, whole oats, linseed meal 

 and bran. A little salt sprinkled on the 

 grain in the trough will aid in teaching 

 them to eat. They will learn to eat 

 hay almost as soon as they do grain. 

 If only a little grain is fed each time 

 and the remainder taken away after 

 feeding, they will soon look forward 

 eagerly to feeding time. When lambs 

 are about eight weeks old, 100 will eat 

 about 17 pounds of grain daily; at 10 

 weeks of age 25 pounds, and at 12 weeks 

 50 pounds or % pound each daily. 

 Many sheepmen feed no grain whatever, 

 but it is desirable in the case of breed- 

 ing stock or show animals, or if the 

 lambs are to be sold on an early fall 

 market. 



Weaning lambs — Lambs are usually 

 allowed to run with the ewes from three 

 to four months. At the end of four 



months at least they should be weaned 

 both for their own sake and that of the 

 ewe. At weaning time, the lambs should 

 be separated entirely from the ewes, and 

 the two kept so far apart that the ewes 

 cannot hear the bleating of the lambs. 

 If the lambs have been taught to eat 

 grain and can be placed on a good, fresh 

 pasture of clover, they will suffer prac- 

 tically no loss of gain at weaning time. 

 The ewes at this time should be kept on 

 short pasture to dry up the milk. Each 

 day they should be carefully observed, 

 and if the tidders become too full, should 

 be milked out by hand. This, however, 

 will seldom be necessary. 



Feeding lambs at pasture — I n order 

 to avoid stomach worms, lambs should 

 be given fresh pasture rather than 

 turned into old sheep pastures. This 

 matter is discussed more in detail under 

 the Diseases of Sheep in Part III. 



While the feeding of grain to ewes at 

 pasture has not been found profitable, 

 the result of five years' tests at the Wis- 

 consin station in feeding lambs grain at 

 pasture, shows that grain at this time 

 is very desirable and more profitable re- 

 sults are secured with than without 

 grains. The station experiments show 

 further that it is not profitable to feed 

 lambs at pasture more than about V2 

 pound of grain daily per head. On 

 good clover, alfalfa or rape pasture, 

 even this amount of grain may be les- 

 sened. The profit in feeding grains 

 comes from the higher price that the 

 mutton from the grain fed lambs brings 

 in the market, and the fact that the 

 lambs are always ready for market. Ad- 

 vantage can therefore be taken imme- 

 diately of any rise in price to market 

 the lambs. If such lambs are wanted 

 for winter fattening, Wisconsin station 

 experiments have shown that the grain 

 fed lambs fatten just as rapidly as lambs 

 that have never received grain and weigh 

 as much four to seven weeks from the 

 end of the fattening period as grass 

 lambs do at the end. 



Grains for lambs before and after 

 weaning — A very careful study has been 

 made at the Wisconsin station to deter- 

 mine the kind of grain that is best suit- 

 ed for lambs, both before and after 

 weaning. For this purpose the station 

 has fed corn, whole oats, bran, cracked 

 peas, corn and oats, and corn and peas. 

 Estimating corn at 30 cents a bushel, 

 oats at 20, peas at 45 and bran at $13 



