FEEDING SHEEP AND GOATS 329 
with wheat bran, oats, or linseed meal fed in varying proportions, 
according to the character of the available roughage and the market 
prices of the feeds, makes up the majority of the rations fed; other 
feeds are cotton-seed meal, soybeans, peas, and, of rough feeds, 
roots or silage, alfalfa or clover hay, corn fodder, etc. The lambs 
are often fattened in two droves in the corn belt, the first one being 
purchased in November and fed until the end of January, when 
the second lot is purchased and fattened by the first of May. 
In the western States extensive lamb and sheep feeding opera- 
tions are carried on each year (Figs. 91, 92, 93, 94). The sheep are 
usually separated into flocks of about 500 each and fed in lots 
Fig. 93.—Lamb-feeding corrals in Idaho. (Iddings.) 
arranged in rows with feeding lanes between. No shelter is pro- 
vided except what may be furnished by a hay or straw stack. The 
sheep are brought from the high summer ranges to these feeding 
points where alfalfa hay is available, and are fed all the hay they 
will eat until they are shipped. If grain is fed, they are given 
three-fourths to one pound daily per head, generally Indian corn, 
or barley or wheat in the far western States. Experiments at the 
New Mexico station?® show that by an addition of corn to alfalfa 
hay an improved quality of mutton was obtained and the feeding 
period was shortened. The general conclusion drawn is that, with 
Bulletin 79. 
