SHEEP 



591 



FATTENING SHEEP AND LAMBS 

 ON FALL PASTURE 



Lambs that come in May and June 

 may, with liberal feeding, both before 

 and after weaning, be made to weigh 90 

 to 100 pounds by the last of November, 

 if given good pasture, with grain. At 

 the Iowa station, on good blue grass pas- 

 ture, lambs without grain made an aver- 

 age daily gain of 0.4 pound a head at a 

 cost of but 2.12 cents a pound of gain. 

 When corn was fed in addition to the 

 blue grass pasture, the daily gain was 

 0.46 pound a head; on oats and pasture 

 the gains were 0.42 pound daily; on bar- 

 ley and pasture, 0.39 pound daily a head. 

 From these data it is seen that sheep 

 may make practically as large gains on 

 grass alone as on grain and grass. The 

 lambs in this experiment, however, were 

 a year old. 



At the Minnesota station, wethers fed 

 a small grain ration, while on good pas- 

 ture made 60 per cent better gains for 

 112 days than wethers without grain. 



On the partially dried up grass pas- 

 tures that had not been cut or pastured 

 during the summer, sheep at the South 

 Dakota station of mixed ages made only 

 one-third to one-fourth as heavy gains 

 as when grain was fed in addition. In 

 this test, there was considerable rain, 

 which probably decreased the gain on 

 grass alone. 



Rye seeded in August makes a fairly 

 good pasture for lambs in the fall, and if 

 not cropped too closely will furnish ex- 

 cellent early pasture the following spring. 



Blue grass pasture is available for 

 fattening lambs after the rains start it 

 into growth in the fall and is excellent 

 for this purpose. 



Clover i n many states makes one of 

 the best fall pastures for lambs. Where 

 it is cut in late June or early July the 

 second crop or aftermath will be avail- 

 able in September. If the lambs are 

 turned upon the field late in the after- 

 •noon when the clover is dry, being first 

 well filled upon blue grass or other for- 

 age, there will be no danger from bloat. 

 The lambs may be pastured on the clover 

 continuously. They should not be per- 

 mitted to pasture too closely, however, 

 or the roots may be exposed and the 

 plants winterkill. 



In an experiment carried ori at Wo- 

 burn, England, sheep on clover pasture 

 alone gave an increase of 264 pounds an 

 acre. When 680 pounds of undecorticated 



cottonseed cake was fed in addition to 

 the pasturage, the average increase per 

 acre was 376.5 pounds ; when 728 pounds 

 of corn meal was fed, the average in- 

 crease was 377 pounds to the acre. These 

 data show that the rate of gain was in- 

 creased about 42 per cent by the use of 

 grain with pasture. 



Clover is especially valuable for lambs 

 because it is rich in protein, is greatly 

 relished by them and puts them in good 

 condition for fattening on grain. 



Alfalfa for pasture—Alfalfa is used 

 extensively as a pasture for lambs and 

 sheep, but is not quite so safe as clover, 

 as there is greater danger from bloat. 

 A few sheep are practically certain to 

 be lost on alfalfa pasture, but the dan- 

 ger can be gradually overcome and the 

 loss reduced to at least 5 per cent by 

 the careful observation of certain pre- 

 cautions. These are stated by the Colo- 

 rado station as follows: "The field 

 should be large enough to supply them 

 with an abundance of food with but lit- 

 tle effort, they should be left in the field 

 night and day and not removed when 

 the field is irrigated. Keep water and 

 salt within their reach all the time and 

 provide shelter from the sun. The sheep 

 should be well filled up with some other 

 food and not thirsty when turned upon 

 the alfalfa. Old sheep are much more 

 liable to bloat on alfalfa than lambs." 



Alfalfa, like clover, is rich in protein, 

 and the plant is greatly relished by 

 lambs and they make good gains on it. 

 Corn or other grain should be fed with 

 the alfalfa to secure the largest gain 

 in the proportion of *<£ to iy 2 pounds a 

 day. 



Whether grain should be fed or not, 

 depends upon the price of grain and 

 whether the lambs are to be fed in the 

 fall, or fattened during the winter. If 

 fattened during the winter, the grain ra- 

 tion at pasture may be very light or 

 omitted altogether. Ordinarily the 

 lambs should be made to make most 

 of their gain on the cheap alfalfa pas- 

 ture, rather than the more expensive 

 grains. 



Rape for pasture—Within recent 

 years, Dwarf Essex rape has grown in 

 favor and importance as a full pasture 

 crop for fattening sheep, particularly in 

 the northern states and Canada. The 

 crop has been very successfully grown 

 as far south as Louisiana, Texas and 

 Alabama. Good results have also been 



