Fattening Range Lambs in Winter 157 



parison with prairie and wild hays, and they have found 

 that with the wild hays so much more grain was required 

 for one hundred pounds gain that the cost of this grain 

 was equal to the cost of both grain and hay where the 

 alfalfa was used. It is e^'ident, therefore, that it does not 

 pay to use this kind of hay at all when alfalfa can be ob- 

 tained at a reasonable price. 



Near the sugar-beet factories, considerable quantities 

 of beet pulp are fed. This pulp is given in quantities 

 somewhat less than the lambs will consume, together 

 with hay and grain in the usual manner. Since beet pulp 

 is largely water, it must be bought at a low price and 

 must be fed in the vicinity of the sugar-beet factories. 

 Dried beet pulp can be fed at a greater distance from the 

 factory than the wet beet pulp, but has so far been but 

 little used for lamb feeding. 



The standard daily ration for lambs weighing 60 pounds 

 at the start would be about two-and-one-half to three 

 pounds a head of good alfalfa hay. This would, of course, 

 be all that they could be made to eat, with the stems and 

 waste parts cleaned out and fed to other stock. After the 

 lambs have been in the feed-lot for perhaps a«week, and 

 are thoroughly accustomed to their surroundings, a small 

 amount of grain is given, usually about one-fifth to one- 

 fourth pound a day a head. The grain is then slowly 

 increased until they are receiving one to one-and-a-half 

 pounds a day. 



A grain ration of one to one-and-a-half pounds of grain 

 is called a full ration. In many cases this amount is not 

 reached until practically the end of the feeding period, 

 the ration being gradually increased through the entire 

 time. The Iambs still receive all the hay they will eat, 

 but with a full ration of grain they will not usually eat over 



