604 



FARMER'S CYCLOPEDIA OF LIVE STOCK 



has considerable value for sheep feed. 

 The Black Veronezh variety (Panicum 

 milliaceum), when ground coarsely, was 

 found excellent for fattening lambs by 

 Watson and Skinner at the South Da- 

 kota station, proving fully equal, pound 

 for pound, to wheat, oats, emmer or 

 mixed grain. 



Oats — Oats are greatly relished by 

 sheep and are especially valuable for 

 lambs and breeding ewes. They are usu- 

 ally fed whole. At the North Dakota 

 station lambs fed whole oats and timo- 

 thy gained 2V 2 pounds a head weekly 

 for eight weeks. When oats, corn, bran 

 and hay were fed to lambs at the Minne- 

 sota station, 36 per cent better gains 

 were made than when the oats were 

 omitted from the ration. The total 

 amount of grain consumed was the same 

 in each case. "Oats usually are too ex- 

 pensive to constitute the whole grain ra- 

 tion for fattening sheep. Added to corn 

 they give variety and palatability to the 

 ration. The grain is more nearly like 

 barley in composition and is therefore 

 better adapted to growth than fattening. 

 Sheep make good gains on oats and an 

 excellent quality of mutton. When 

 they are cheap enough they may be prof- 

 itably fed. Ordinarily they should con- 

 stitute only part of the grain ration for 

 fattening sheep. For breeding ewes or 

 in the production of wool, they make 

 one of the best grain rations." 



Peas — Northern field peas constitute 

 one of the very best grains for sheep. 

 When coarsely cracked, they are espe- 

 cially valuable for growing lambs .and 

 are greatly relished. Their value for 

 pasturing in the fields when ripe has 

 been treated elsewhere in this chapter. 

 Peas are rich in protein. They are usu- 

 ally too expensive to be made the sole 

 ration for sheep, and should, therefore, 

 be mixed with corn, oats or some cheap- 

 er grain in order to secure their great- 

 est value. 



At the Wisconsin station when peas 

 were fed in equal parts with corn 20 

 per cent better gains were made with 

 lambs than when corn was fed alone, 

 or corn and oats mixed. 



In one test at the Ontario agricul- 

 tural college, lambs gained 2.1 pounds 

 weekly on peas, while on corn and oats 

 the gains were 2.29 pounds. In another 

 test, lambs fed corn alone gained 2.5 

 pounds a head weekly; on peas 2.9 

 pounds; and on equal parts corn and 



peas, 2.6 pounds. When peas alone were 

 fed, it required 3.3 pounds to produce 

 a pound of gain; when corn was fed 

 alone, 3.8 pounds was required; and 

 when corn and peas were fed together 

 3.7 pounds. 



Screenings — At the large wheat ele- 

 vators enormous quantities of screen- 

 ings accumulate in recleaning the 

 wheat. These cleanings consist largely 

 of broken and shriveled grains of wheat, 

 weed seeds, chaff and broken pieces of 

 straw. They have been used extensively 

 in the vicinity of the larger elevators of 

 Minnesota and Wisconsin, etc, for fat- 

 tening sheep. 



At the Minnesota station, when corn 

 was worth $13 a ton for fattening sheep, 

 screenings made up of about 90 per cent 

 small wheat grains and edible weed 

 seeds had a value of $10.35 a ton. Whole 

 buckwheat seed had a value on the same 

 basis of $9.56 a ton and pigeon grass 

 seed of $9.40 a ton. This gives screen- 

 ings a value about two-thirds that of 

 good grain. 



In experiments at the North Dakota 

 station lambs fattened on wheat screen- 

 ings gained 2 pounds a head weekly at 

 a cost of 5.2 cents a pound of gain. 

 Much better results have been obtained 

 in feeding lambs screenings at the Mon- 

 tana station than in feeding wheat, oats, 

 barley or mixed grain, but for wethers 

 the screenings have not proved as val- 

 uable as barley or mixed grain. 



Sheep on clover and damaged wheat 

 at the Montana station made 100 pounds 

 gain at a cost of $3.22. Slightly better 

 gains were made on clover and screen- 

 ings than on clover and grains, and the 

 cost of a 100 pounds increase was $1 less 

 on the screenings. The better gain on 

 the screenings was thought to be due 

 to the greater variety afforded by this 

 feed, which was greatly relished by the 

 sheep. 



In experiments at the Utah station, 

 the gains on screenings varied from 

 1.44 to 1.68 pounds a head weekly. 



Soy beans — This feed, while rich in 

 protein and excellent for balancing ra- 

 tions for sheep fed corn and hay, is usu- 

 ally too expensive to be fed as the sole 

 grain to fattening sheep. 



In experiments at the Wisconsin sta- 

 tion, a pound of soy beans produced as 

 large gains as 1.2 pounds of oats. The 

 greatest value from soy beans will be 

 found in using them in small amounts 



