SHEEP 



597 



Amount lambs eat daily — Fattening 

 lambs eight to 10 months old will eat 

 from 1.5 to 3 pounds of hay daily in ad- 

 dition to 1.5 to 2 pounds of grain and 

 1 to 2 pounds of sliced roots or silage. 

 In feeding roughage to sheep it must 

 be remembered that they are dainty 

 feeders and do not eat everything up 

 closely. It is advisable to feed them 

 more roughage than is required, allowing 

 them to pick out what they want and 

 then clean out the racks between each 

 feeding, giving what remains to cattle 

 or horses. 



Balancing up the roughage with 

 grain — If the only roughage available 

 is corn stalks, millet, hay, oat straw, 

 timothy, sorghum or cereal hays, it will 

 be necessary to balance up the ration 

 with some grain or mill product richer 

 in protein than corn. Otherwise the 

 ration will be too wide for growing sheep 

 and not satisfactory for mature sheep. 

 Coarsely cracked field peas or ground soy 

 beans are excellent for this purpose and 

 may be mixed with corn, barley, screen- 

 ings, millet seeds, oats or other more 

 starchy grains in the proportion of one 

 part peas or soy beans to three or four 

 parts other grains. 



Among the mill feeds which are ex- 

 ceedingly valuable for balancing up the 

 rations, are cottonseed meal, linseed 

 meal, or the gluten feeds. These should 

 be used in the proportion of about one 

 part to four to eight parts of corn or 

 other grain. Bran and middlings are 

 also excellent and they may constitute 

 as much as one-fourth to one-third of 

 the grain ration by weight with economy 

 and profit. 



The higher the price of the other 

 grains like corn, the more desirable will 

 it be to use some of the more concen- 

 trated feeds like the oil meal for balan- 

 cing up the ration. 



Order of feeding rations — Fattening 

 sheep are fed usually two or three times 

 a day. Under ordinary conditions twice 

 a day is sufficient, once in the morning 

 at daylight, and again late in the after- 

 noon. It is a rule among sheepmen 

 never to waken the flock to feed them in 

 the morning. In feeding, the grain 

 ration is usually given first, followed 

 by the hay and later in the day by silage 

 or roots if these feeds are available. In 

 the afternoon, grain is again given fol- 

 lowed by hay. Where sheep are watered 

 by hand this is usually done in the morn- 



ing alter they have been fed hay. If 

 silage or roots are given, watering is 

 done after these are given. If fresh 

 water is available at all times so much 

 the better, otherwise, one watering is 

 sufficient. Gentleness and quietness is 

 essential in the fattening pen. No 

 stranger or dog should ever be allowed 

 in the pens if it can be prevented. Sheep 

 are easily frightened and the fright 

 manifests itself in shrinkage and loss. 

 The slamming of doors or other needless 

 noise should be avoided. 



Time required to fatten lambs — With 

 lambs that have never received grain at 

 pasture it requires from 12 to 15 weeks' 

 feeding to fit them for market. With 

 palatable, well balanced rations and un- 

 der good conditions, lambs should gain 

 on the average about Vi pound a day, 

 or from 25 to 30 pounds in 14 to 16 

 weeks. It requires on the average 8 to 

 9 pounds of dry matter to produce a 

 pound of gain with lambs and from 30 

 to 40 per cent more than this with older 

 sheep. 



Way the fat is laid on — Sheep put on 

 fattening rations begin to show the in- 

 fluence of feed at the end of the third 

 or fourth week. During this time they 

 seem to be simply getting into good con- 

 dition to put on flesh, though it ap- 

 pears that some flesh is being deposited 

 internally. According to Craig: "To- 

 ward the end of that time, many of the 

 lambs may be noticed standing leisurely 

 in the sun in a partially stretched pos- 

 ture. This pose in the lambs is a delight 

 to the shepherd. The fattening process 

 seems to extend from the internal re- 

 gions, and is first in evidence at the tail. 

 It then passes along the back over the 

 shoulder and reaches the neck; from 

 this line it seems to extend down the 

 sides and over the breast in front." 



Feeding after sheep are ripe — If the 

 feeding has been well done at the end of 

 14 to 16 weeks, lambs will be ripe for 

 market. That is, they will be so fat and 

 well filled out that further gain cannot 

 be made at a profit. In experiments at 

 the Minnesota station it cost 4.17 cents 

 to make 1 pound of gain at the begin- 

 ning of the feeding period, and 23.17 

 cents a pound after the lambs were ripe. 

 At the North Dakota station, lambs 

 fed a heavy grain ration for four weeks 

 after they were ripe gained but 5 pounds 

 during the whole period, thus showing 

 that any feeding done after the lambs 



