602 



FARMER'S CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



gains at the Dakota station on barley- 

 three parts, bran one part was at the 

 rate of 2^4 pounds a head weekly. On 

 barley and hay alone at the South Da- 

 kota station, the gains were 2^ pounds 

 a head weekly. In this experiment it 

 required about 5 pounds of grain to 

 make a pound of gain; the average of 

 many experiments shows that it takes 

 about 453 pounds of barley with hay to 

 produce 100 pounds of gain. For fat- 

 tening lambs barley may be considered 

 fully equal, if not superior, to corn. It 

 is richer in protein than corn and well 

 adapted to producing both growth and 

 fat in lambs. It is relished by sheep. 

 The bald barley must be fed with cau- 

 tion to prevent the lambs from getting 

 off feed, usually not in excess of 1 pound 

 per head daily. 



Corn — This grain is probably superior 

 to all others in producing gains during 

 the final stages of fattening sheep. 

 Sheep are exceedingly fond of it. It is 

 usually fed whole and shelled, though as 

 mentioned in another place, it is fre- 

 quently fed on the stalk, unhusked, as 

 corn fodder in racks, which is one of the 

 best ways of utilizing it. 



From experiments reported by the 

 Wisconsin and other stations, corn 

 alone does not appear to be as safe a 

 feed, especially for lambs, as some of 

 the other feeds like peas or oats. It 

 causes digestive disorders and the lambs 

 get off feed on it. This is not noticed 

 to the same extent with older sheep. 



Figuring corn at 30 cents a bushel, no 

 other grain can compare with it in pro- 

 ducing cheap mutton, either before or 

 after lambs are weaned, or in fattening 

 mature sheep. The Colorado station re- 

 ports an experiment in which corn was 

 compared with wheat for sheep. Dur- 

 ing the early stages of feeding, wheat 

 gave the larger gains, but later in the 

 experiments better gains were made on 

 corn. That station believes it best to 

 feed wheat the first third of the feeding 

 period, then half wheat and half corn 

 the next third, finishing off on clear 

 corn. In fattening older sheep, corn is 

 considered by far the best grain to feed. 



Corn need not be soaked for sheep; 

 but fed dry and whole. For old sheep, 

 corn is sometimes cooked. One feeder 

 reports the fattening of 2,600 old sheep, 

 in which cooked corn was used. The 

 belief is expressed that the gains made 

 were enough faster to pay for the extra 



cost of cooking the corn since the sheep 

 ate a greater quantity of the cooked 

 than of the dry corn. Usually, however, 

 if corn is ground for old sheep, it will 

 give satisfactory results and this is likely 

 to be a cheaper method of .preparing it 

 than cooking. Corn at the Iowa station 

 at 33 cents a bushel was a more econom- 

 ical grain to feed to sheep on grass than 

 oats at 23 cents or barley at 40 cents. 



Cottonseed meal — Both cottonseed 

 meal and cottonseed cake are used more 

 or less extensively for sheep. As is well 

 known, cottonseed meal is a rich, pro- 

 tein feed. It should be used only in 

 very small amounts and preferably with 

 other grains to balance up the ration. 

 It should seldom, if ever, be fed in 

 greater amounts than % pound a head 

 daily and better results will be secured 

 if only about Vs to ^4 pound is fed in 

 combination with corn and mixed grains. 

 In some English experiments of Bom- 

 bay vs. Egyptian undecorticated cotton- 

 seed cake, better gains were made on the 

 Bombay cake. Both of these cotton- 

 seed cakes contain more hulls and lint 

 than the American cottonseed meal and 

 are not equal to the American meal in 

 feeding value. 



Emmer — This grain is frequently re- 

 ferred to as spelt. Spelt, however, is 

 not grown in this country, except in an 

 experimental way. Emmer is a kind of 

 wheat, (Triticum dicoccum). It weighs 

 from 41 to 45 pounds a bushel and is 

 enclosed in the chaff the same as barley. 

 At the South Dakota station it re- 

 quired one-fourth more emmer and one- 

 fifteenth more wheat to produce a 

 pound of gain in fattening lambs than 

 of corn. Generally speaking, the station 

 has found that from 1 to 2 pounds more 

 of emmer is required to produce a 

 pound of gain in sheep than of the 

 other common grains. It is more useful 

 when mixed with other grains than 

 when fed alone. It was found about 

 two-thirds as valuable as barley for fat- 

 tening lambs and had a value of about 

 76 cents a hundred pounds when corn 

 was worth 82 cents. 



For fattening wethers at the Iowa 

 station, emmer proved, pound for pound, 

 practically as valuable as corn. At the 

 Colorado station likewise, emmer proved 

 cheaper, pound for pound, than corn, 

 and produced larger gains, with fatten- 

 ing lambs. 



