Sheep; Its History, Breeding, Production 19 



a few years ago, every Tom, Dick and Harry got busy writing articles 

 on the gospel of more sheep and wool. They jumped on the fact that 

 sheep are the best plant scavengers on earth and rode it to death. 



The Ranchman 



It is the custom and practise of the big ranchmen of Idaho, Mon- 

 tana, Nevada, Utah, Washington and Wyoming to ship their product 

 to market mostly during the months of July, August, September, 

 October and November. Some of their sheep and lambs get quite fat 

 on that very nutritious buffalo grass, found on the western range. 

 There are some tame pasture lands, and a great deal of alfalfa is being 

 grown, as well as roots for winter feeding. A big per cent of their 

 shipments consist of sheep and lambs in what we term "feeder ilesh." 

 These must go out through the corn belt regions and be fattened and 

 finished for market. During the years I have spent on this market, I 

 have bought and sold many thousands of these sheep and lambs, and 

 can report that as a whole, they were a strictly healthy lot. 



Same Problem But Different Answers 



I wish to give an example to show what good care and thoughtful 

 management will do, in comparison with negligence and carelessness. 

 A short time ago I purchased a band of very choice western breeding 

 ewes, which were divided between two men, one bunch going to Indiana 

 and the other to Illinois. The ewes cost $11.50 on the Chicago market. 

 One of these men shipped his lambs to market from these ewes, and 

 they sold for $17.80 a head. He also sold $5.00 worth of wool per head 

 from his ewes, making a total of $22.80 per head to remunerate him for 

 the care and feed given his flock for one year. This is only figuring one 

 lamb to the ewe, or one hundred per cent, whereas good shepherds figure 

 around one hundred and fifteen to one hundred and twenty-five per cent 

 and even higher. The male lambs were castrated and all had been 

 docked. They were a mighty fine looking lot. 



The other gentleman called me to his place during the early summer. 

 I found his ewes, about four hundred, running in a cutover or brush 

 pasture, With lambs at their sides. There was not enough feed in that 

 pasture, if it had been stewed down, to have furnished nourishment for 

 one ewe and a pair of lambs. The ewes were thin and weak, the lambs 

 were also scrawny, and they did look like a sickly lot. I said to him: 

 "You haven't any feed in this wild pasture that will produce milk on 

 which to raise a lamb." He said he was feeding some silage, so I asked 

 him concerning its quality and condition, and learned that it was mil- 

 dewed and sour, therefore poisonous. He said that he had called the 

 veterinarian and they had examined several of these sheep and lambs 

 that had died, and they had found a condition in the stomach, which 

 he called something, I have forgotten what. The veterinarians recom- 

 mended that a vaccine be prepared and the entire flock vaccinated at 

 once. I do not know whether this was done, but I remember saying to 

 myself that if I was eating sour and poisonous food and was about 

 starved, weak and sick, and carrying a heavy load, as were those ewes. 



