PEOFITABLE SYSTEMS FOR FEEDING SHEEP 65 



the best practice to place them at once in the feeding in- 

 closure and start them on a light feed of roughness. The 

 second or third day after they are filled on hay a small feed 

 of grain may be given, and this very gradually increased to 

 a full feed. Some very successful feeders take over three 

 weeks to get tlieir sheep on full feed. They increase the 

 feed only one peck per hundred head, and each increase is 

 tried three days before another is given. Perhaps the great- 

 est difficulty lies in the fact that there are always a few 

 backward sheep that have to be coaxed and pampered 

 while the others seem to be going nicely. The increase of 

 feed has to be based on the rate at which the most back- 

 ward ones will stand it. One feeder says that a full feed 

 is all a sheep will eat, save one handful. 



Different kinds of feeds for sheep. The grain ration for dry- 

 lot feeding is greatly varied. Beet pulp, peas, spelt, barley, 

 oats, bran, oil meal, cottonseed meal, cotton hulls, screen- 

 ings, and, last and best, corn are the principal feeds used. 



Beet pulp. Beet pulp is of importance in a few regions in 

 Colorado near the sugar factories. It is not a feed that can 

 be shipped any great distance and fed at a profit. 



Peas. Peas are a most excellent sheep feed and make a 

 very desirable quality of mutton, but with the exception of 

 the field-peas regions in Colorado they are not widely fed, 

 on account of the high price they command. 



The small grains. Spelt, barley, and oats are crops that 

 can be grown in the Northwest quite successfully, and are 

 very palatable sheep feeds. They are not as fatteniiig as 

 corn, but certain comparative feeding tests have shown that 

 they have a very good feeding value. They are not the 

 feeds for the corn-belt feeder, but deserve consideration in 

 the regions where they are grown. 



