182 Western Live-stock Management 
Wintering ewes. 
The ewes require a large amount of range in the winter 
and should not be closely confined in barns or muddy 
lots. Access to an open shed or barn under which they 
will be given hay and such grain as may be necessary is 
very satisfactory. Elaborate barns are not only un- 
necessary but are positively harmful. Some successful 
sheep farms use no sheds or barns, but in such cases they 
rely on natural shelter, as trees or brush and the like, 
where the sheep do not have to stand in mud. 
It is impossible to give any exact rules for feeding during 
the winter. Sometimes when a few ewes are given the 
run of large fields and pastures, they will pick up enough 
feed to keep them. There will be found all intermediates 
between this condition and those in which ewes must be 
given all of their feed in the form of grain and hay. In the 
latter case the hay should be good legume hay. Timothy 
or cheat hay is poor feed for sheep and its use requires 
an excessive amount of grain. One ordinarily expects 
to feed a little grain when the ewes have no pasture. A 
mixture consisting of one-and-one-half parts oats to one 
part bran is a good feed for pregnant ewes. With ordi- 
nary hay, a daily ration of about one-half pound of the 
mixture for each ewe a day is sufficient, while with poor 
hay as much as one pound daily will be required. With 
good alfalfa or clover hay, no grain is needed until about 
a month before lambing. At this time it becomes neces- 
sary to feed a little grain or to increase the amount of 
hay to insure a good milk flow. One of the greatest 
difficulties of sheep-raising is the winter feeding of ewes. 
The shepherd either feeds them too well and does not 
exercise his ewes enough, or he goes to the other extreme 
and exposes them to storms with little or no feed. When 
