338 HISTORY OF SHEEP FEEDING IN UNITED STATES 



Rise of Farmer Feeders. — Not long after the large operators 

 started to feed sheep farmers saw opportunities for profits in the 

 business. Within a short time they were able to demonstrate that 

 they were in better position to engage in sheep feeding than were 

 the large operators. Their advantages were these: First, they 

 owned the land on which the feeding was done, while, as a rule, 

 the large operators did not; second, they considered the manure a 

 valuable item, while to the large operators it was often an incum- 

 brance. In fact, it was the need for manure which led certain 

 farmers in Michigan to engage in sheep feeding. Their farms had 

 been depleted in fertility by continued cropping with wheat and 

 something had to be done to restore fertility. Profitable sheep feed- 

 ing, with the attendant production of manure, caught the attention 

 of these farmers and they began to engage in the business about 

 1893. Anyone who travels through south central Michigan will be 

 impressed by the number of large red barns that have been erected 

 for the purpose of conserving all of the roughages grown on the farm, 

 such as hay, straw, corn stover, and bean hulls, and for housing 

 sheep and lambs to which the roughages are fed. Most of the con- 

 centrates are shipped in. Thus more fertility is carried back to the 

 land in the form of manure than was taken away from it in the form 

 of roughages. The crops produced on the farms where the large red 

 barns are located bear ample evidence that something has been done 

 to restore fertility, and those acquainted with conditions unhesi- 

 tatingly give the credit to the feeding of sheep. 



Since farmers own the land on which they do their feeding they 

 have still another advantage over the large operator in that they 

 produce a great deal of their own feed. In the early days, when 

 screenings were ridiculously cheap, this was not such an advantage, 

 but now that a market has been established for them, the man 

 who grows all or a part of his feed near the base of his operations 

 is in better position to feed than the nian who is compelled to buy all 

 of his feeds. 



Again, the landowner, particularly in the corn belt, usually has 

 a great deal of growth on his land which he considers waste unless 

 consumed by some such animal as the sheep. The utilization of 

 this growth gives the farmer or landowner a tremendous advantage 

 over the large operator, for whatever gain the sheep make from it 

 is counted clear profit. With this and the other advantages enum- 

 erated, it is clear that in time sheep feeding must be almost entirely 



