340 FEEDS AND FEEDING, ABRIDGED 



Linseed and cottonseed meal. — These protein-rich concentrates 

 are the supplements most commonly used with sheep for balancing 

 rations low in protein. In a trial at the Wisconsin Station 6 the 

 value of these supplements for lambs was compared when added to a 

 ration of shelled corn, corn silage, and legume hay, a ration other- 

 wise low in protein. In addition to these feeds, one lot of 40 lambs 

 was fed 0.21 lb. of linseed meal per head daily, and another lot 0.16 

 lb. of choice cottonseed meal, which supplied the same amount of di- 

 gestible protein as the larger amount of linseed meal. The lambs in 

 both lots gained 0.37 lb. per head daily, but the gains of those fed 

 cottonseed meal were slightly cheaper, chiefly because less cottonseed 

 meal than linseed meal was required to balance the ration. Lambs 

 should not receive more than half a pound of linseed or cottonseed 

 meal per head daily, and one-eighth or one-fourth pound in com- 

 bination with other concentrates will usually provide a well-balanced 

 ration. Linseed cake of pea size is better relished by sheep than the 

 finely ground meal. 



Minor protein-rich concentrates. — Field peas and soybeans are 

 usually too expensive to form the entire concentrate allowance for 

 fattening lambs, but may be used with corn or other grain. Field 

 peas produce firm flesh and fed in combination with such feeds as 

 corn, oats, and bran are excellent in fitting sheep for shows. 



Wheat bran should form no large part of the concentrate allow- 

 ance for fattenizig sheep, for, like oats, it induces growth rather than 

 fattening and is too bulky. When lambs are being started on feed, 

 bran is useful for mixing with corn and other heavy concentrates to 

 prevent digestive troubles. It is a most valuable feed for breeding 

 ewes. 



Dried distillers' grains, dried brewers' grains, and gluten feed, 

 tho not commonly fed to sheep in this country, have given good re- 

 sults in Europe. 



II. Roughages for Sheep 



Legume hay. — The legumes furnish by far the best roughages for 

 sheep — in the East clover and alfalfa hay, thruout the West alfalfa 

 with clover and field peas in certain sections, and in the South the 

 cowpea, beggarweed, and other plants. It is more important for 

 sheep than for cattle that the hay be fine-stemmed and leafy. 



The superiority of legume hay over carbonaceous hay for sheep 

 is shown in the following summary of 5 trials at 4 different stations, 

 in which rations of clover or alfalfa hay with corn as the sole con- 



8 Morrison and Kleinheinz, unpublished data. 



