100 SHEEP FEEDING 



clear profit, so he is content to market tliem " just warmed 

 up," and to let some other feeder add the finish. Both par- 

 ties to such a deal make money and both are satisfied. How- 

 ever, if there is still a margin of profit on the sheep when 

 the first feeder lets them go, — especially one large enough 

 to justify all the necessary freight bills and the buying and 

 selling commissions, — why cannot the first man do the 

 finishing ? He may answer : I do not know how to finish 

 slieep. I have no shelter for late fall and winter feeding, 

 and it is essential in my part of the country. I feed cattle 

 and hogs with the corn I grow and do not have enough for 

 both. All very good reasons, but can we not answer : If 

 feeding and finishing sheep is a profitable business, cannot 

 the one who grows the feed well afford to learn the art ? 

 We learn by doing. If the buyer of half -finished sheep finds 

 it profitable to build large barns m which to feed, cannot the 

 Middle West farmer do it with equal profit ? The experi- 

 ence of thousands of successful feeders would indicate that 

 he can. If sheep will produce on a given amount of hay 

 and grain more pounds of gain than will cattle, — and it 

 is a pr(.)ved fact that they will, — and the feeding margin 

 averages about the same for sheep as for cattle, why not 

 feed the corn to sheep instead of to cattle ? Cattle are 

 seldom fed without hogs to follow, and from the latter the 

 profit most generally comes. No one ever heard a sheep 

 feeder say that the only money he made from feeding sheep 

 came from hogs ; for it is not necessary to look to another 

 annual for the profits on the graui that sheep consume. 



The foregoing applies to the man who markets half- 

 finished sheep, knows it, and still argues that he cannot 

 afford to do otherwise. For the one who wishes to make 

 the profits of both the starter and the finisher, and for the 



