370 FACTORS AFFECTING GAIN IN FATTENING 



from a given weight of feed, but they sell better as a prime product. 

 That is, one year with another, the margin on prime lambs is 

 likely to be greater than the margin on the prime grade of older 

 sheep. Feeder lambs cost more per hundredweight than do yearlings 

 and wethers, but in cases where the margin between cost and 

 selling price is the same, the higher cost is an advantage. 



Yearlings and wethers, provided the latter are not greatly 

 advanced in age, are about the same in their rate of gain and in 

 the amount of feed they use to produce a pound of gain. Both 

 are well adapted to making use of rations rather low in protein. 

 At the Illinois Station the writer fed a lot of yearlings for 84 

 days on corn, corn silage, and oat straw, that made almost as much 

 gain and were judged to be equal in market finish to a lot fed 

 corn, corn silage, and alfalfa hay. 



Care must be exercised in feeding yearlings, for they will 

 sell as wethers if they are mad'e too heavy for the mutton yearling 

 class, or if they become too mature to break at the epiphyseal 

 cartilage (break joint) when they are slaughtered. 



Only a few feeder yearlings and wethers can be purchased 

 on the open market. They have largely disappeared because in 

 many places in the West where wethers were kept, sheep hus- 

 bandry has been superseded by other types of agriculture, and in 

 many other places in the West, conditions have changed so that 

 breeding ewes are regarded as more profitable than wethers. There 

 is a demand and hence a market for yearling and wether mutton, 

 but in times of normal supply they are not logical mutton products, 

 for if everything goes well so that the wether lamb is a fit product 

 for mutton, it should be sold before it passes out of the lamb class. 



Old ewes make very good use of feed if their teeth are 

 in good condition, but if they cannot masticate their food well, 

 they must receive close attention. Their grain should be ground 

 and their roughage should be of good quality. In Colorado it has 

 been found that they make good use of beet pulp, and undoubtedly 

 silage would serve well as one of the roughages in their ration. 



The following data obtained by Shaw at the Montana Station - 

 show the results of fattening sheep of different ages. Particular 

 attention should be given to the amount of hay each class consumed 

 daily for a period of 88 days. 



^Montana Station Bulletin 35. 



