182 Western Live-stock Management 



Wintering ewes. 



The ewes require a large amount of range in the winter 

 and should not be closely confined in barns or muddy 

 lots. Access to an open shed or barn under which they 

 will be given hay and such grain as may be necessary is 

 very satisfactory. Elaborate barns are not only un- 

 necessary but are positively harmful. Some successful 

 sheep farms use no sheds or barns, but in such cases they 

 rely on natural shelter, as trees or brush and the like, 

 where the sheep do not have to stand in mud. 



It is impossible to give any exact rules for feeding during 

 the winter. Sometimes when a few ewes are given the 

 run of large fields and pastures, they will pick up enough 

 feed to keep them. There will be found all intermediates 

 between this condition and those in which ewes must be 

 given all of their feed in the form of grain and hay. In the 

 latter case the hay should be good legume hay. Timothy 

 or cheat hay is poor feed for sheep and its use requires 

 an excessive amount of grain. One ordinarily expects 

 to feed a little grain when the ewes have no pasture. A 

 mixture consisting of one-and-one-half parts oats to one 

 part bran is a good feed for pregnant ewes. With ordi- 

 nary hay, a daily ration of about one-half pound of the 

 mixture for each ewe a day is sufficient, while with poor 

 hay as much as one pound daily Mill be required. With 

 good alfalfa or clover hay, no grain is needed until about 

 a month before lambing. At this time it becomes neces- 

 sary to feed a little grain or to increase the amount of 

 hay to insure a good milk flow. One of the greatest 

 difficulties of sheep-raising is the winter feeding of ewes. 

 The shepherd either feeds them too well and does not 

 exercise his ewes enough, or he goes to the other extreme 

 and exposes them to storms with little or no feed. When 



