26 Practical Sheep Husbandry 



Sheep are healthy and will give back more for the good care and 

 treatment accorded them than any other animal in the world, but if 

 they are mistreated they will give nothing. 



Good Advice 



John Fitzgerald says: "Every quarter section of corn belt land is 

 capable of furnishing the feed for a iiock of 40 ewes and their produce, 

 without interfering with the present system of management. Think 

 what the returns from a flock of 40 good ewes, rightly managed, would 

 mean to a farm. Remember, when you see a thing that needs to be done 

 for a flock of sheep, that it should be done RIGHT NOW, as tomorrow 

 may be too late. It may be truthfully said that carefully watching and 

 doing the little things at the right time means everything in handling 

 sheep. They are capable of paying greater dividends than any other 

 animal, but an irritable, impatient sort of person cannot make a suc- 

 cess with them." 



The complaints have been many and varied in regard to the quality 

 of sheep produced by the average farmer, and I believe if he really 

 knew what a bad job he has been doing in the sheep producing line, he 

 would try to make amends. We often hear the remark on the market : 

 "What a trashy lot of natives!" The bulk of them come to market 

 weighing from 40 to 140 pounds, uncastrated, part fat and part lean, 

 with no semblance of uniformity or breeding. 



Big, coarse, bucky. lambs are not the best meat ; neither are the 

 thousands of thin, cull native lambs and old, thin cull ewes that have 

 to be slaughtered, because a feeder will not buy them. Is it any won- 

 der that the consumer balks at such meat and refuses to eat it ; thereby 

 causing severe fluctuations in the market? This deplorably bad situa- 

 tion will not improve until the man who keeps sheep on the farm refuses 

 to raise them in a haphazard fashion. There are a few good producers 

 but they are at present decidedly in the minority. 



The ram should be kept separate and placed with the ewes at a 

 certain time, so the lambs will come at a regular period and all be about 

 the same age. Castrating and docking should be attended to vdthout 

 fail, and good feed should be provided for the ewes during winter 

 months. Good, early grasses and feeds should be provided for the lambs, 

 and they should be pushed along with a definite marketing time in view, 

 instead of any time in the future that happens to suit, or whenever 

 circumstances force their marketing. I would like to see more good 

 sheep producers in the business, men who will give their sheep a major 

 place on their farm, but we need far less of the cull and buck lamb 

 variety. 



I propose to point out in this chapter a good business type of ewe, 

 that will produce the lambs required on the market, if bred to most any 

 of the pure bred rams of the breeds mentioned in the former chapter, 

 and the condition that ewe and ram should be in at mating to insure a 

 big per cent of lambs ; feed required for the winter flock, preparing for 

 the lambing season, lambing, shearing, producing and marketing the 

 early lamb, caring for the summer flock, etc. 



Any one wishing to breed pure blood sheep receives my hearty ap- 



