Fattening Range Lambs in Winter 165 



the same as for lambs, or possibly a little less. The cost 

 of feeding, therefore, will be about 40 per cent greater, 

 and the margin required correspondingly increased. For 

 these reasons, there is not usually the profit in feeding 

 wethers that there is in feeding lambs unless the margin 

 is very large. 



FEEDING OLD EWES 



Large numbers of old ewes are sold in the stock-yards 

 every fall at low prices, and in many cases offer attractive 

 opportunities to the sheep-feeder. It is very essential, 

 however, that these old sheep have good teeth. A large 

 part of these old ewes are put on the market because their 

 teeth are bad and they are no longer profitable on the range. 

 Such ewes will not pay for feeding. In fact, they com- 

 monly will not become fat at all and all of the feed put 

 into them will be wasted. On the other hand, however, 

 if the teeth are fairly good, they may often be profitable. 

 Sometimes the teeth are too bad to allow the ewes to be 

 kept on the range, but are still good enough so that they 

 will fatten when put on good feed. In general, fattening 

 old ewes is rather risky, and such ewes should not be 

 bought for feeding purposes without a very careful ex- 

 amination. The rations required for ewes are about the 

 same as for wethers, though in some cases slightly less. 

 Grinding the grain for ewes will sometimes pay, but not 

 usually. The gains will vary from nothing to one-fourth 

 pound a day, and the cost is usually somewhat higher than 

 with wethers. 



