CHAPTER Xin 



FATTENING SHEEP 



In farm flocks, practically all the sheep fitted for 

 market are lambs. A few cull ewes need to be fat- 

 tened in most seasons, but it is the finishing of the 

 lambs that has most to do with returns and requires 

 special study. There are three plans of disposing 

 of lambs. The first is to have the lambs come early 

 and then to feed them liberally in pens from which the 

 ewes are excluded. The milk flow of the ewes is 

 also kept up by good feeding, and lambs are market- 

 able at fifty pounds or upwards. Selling at this 

 age avoids trouble from summer parasites and the 

 extra value on the early market makes the returns 

 as large as from heavier lambs marketed later at a 

 lower price. 



Age at which to feed grain. — The second plan is 

 to market the lambs at weaning time or shortly 

 after. The third is to wean the lambs and run them 

 on pasture until winter, when they are fattened and 

 sold when ten or eleven months old. In the first 

 plan, the lambs must be fed grain while on the ewes ; 

 with the other plans, feeding at that stage is optional. 

 An extensive series of experiments was conducted 

 at the Wisconsin Experiment Station to determine 



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