Feeding Farm Sheep 215 



bad effect on the kidney and the bladder. They should 

 be fed only with great care to ewes. 



Kale. 



Kale is used especially in the Willamette Valley where 

 the winter climate is mild and where the mercury seldom 

 drops below the freezing point. The kale plant remains 

 green all winter and is cut in the field and hauled direct 

 to the barn, where it is fed either whole or passed through 

 a cutter. If run through the cutter, the entire plant is 

 consumed, otherwise the coarser stalks are not eaten. 



Cabbage. 



On the average western farm there is usually more 

 or less cabbage, but because of human consumption, it 

 usually has too high a market value for sheep feed. How- 

 ever, when grown to any extent, there are always damaged, 

 unsalable heads which can be used to great advantage as 

 sheep feed. Sheep relish cabbage, eating it when they 

 refuse all other feed. Cabbage is used extensively in the 

 feeding of show sheep, since it can always be purchased 

 on the show circuit and is very easily handled. 



SILAGE 



Silage is being used more and more for sheep through- 

 > out the western states. Fed in quantities of two pounds 

 a head a day, it provides an excellent supplement to the 

 ration for breeding ewes. Care must be exercised in the 

 feeding of silage, however, because musty and moldy 

 silage is poisonous to sheep. In most trials at the experi- 

 ment stations, the gains from silage have been somewhat 

 below that from roots, but the cost of the gain usually has 

 been in favor of the silage. These trials, however, have 



