54 SHEEP FEEDING 



pasture that is required when handled in this way it is quite 

 difficult to say, but in a rough way it may be figured that 

 from six to ten hundred-pound sheep will require about the 

 same amount of pasture as a mature beef animal. 



Alfalfa to be used with care. In sections where alfalfa 

 thrives, excellent results have been obtained by letting the 

 sheep graze the alfalfa fields in conjunction with cornfields. 

 In starting on the alfalfa, precautions must be taken, by 

 beginning slowly, to guard against bloat. The alfalfa can- 

 not be pastured too close without endangering the stand. 



Good gains from leguminous hay and corn. Alfalfa or 

 clover hay combine very well indeed with cornfield feeding. 

 In sections where weather conditions will permit, the most 

 satisfactory way of feeding it is to haul it to the cornfields 

 and stack it, one load in a place. Around each stack set 

 four sixteen-foot panels that are three or four feet high. 

 The lower boards must be far enough apart to permit the 

 sheep to put their heads through and eat. Two or three times 

 a day an attendant should go to each stack and push the 

 hay up to the panels so that the sheep can reach it. If the 

 hay is fed in this way and the sheep harvest the corn from 

 the field, one man can care for about five thousand head. 



A nonleguminous roughness a poor feed for sheep. Prairie 

 or timothy hay is never a satisfactory rouglmess for sheep. 

 A large Kansas feeder comparing alfalfa and prairie hay 

 says: "There were two bunches of lambs that I handled 

 the same way in every respect except that one lot received 

 alfalfa and the other prairie hay. On the alfalfa lot I made 

 eight pounds of gain per head per month, while the prairie- 

 hay lot gained five pounds per head per month." Although 

 these results are not conclusive they show the relative value 

 of these two kinds of hay for sheep feeding. 



