4 
Farmers' Bulletin 1181. 
ADVANTAGES OF TEMPORARY PASTURES. 
The use of temporary pastures aids in utilizing the economic pe- 
culiarities of sheep. This is true because a succession and a variety 
of fresh forage crops produce the maximum milk flow of the ewe, 
and lambs are largely a milk product. The lambs most in demand 
at the markets are those that reach a desirable weight and finish 
while still sucklings. Returns from the sale of such lambs are the 
quickest that can be obtained for a finished product in any line of 
livestock raising. 
Pei'manent grass pastures are well suited to ewes with lambs, but 
as the lambs become larger and able to use more milk the feed is 
likely to be cut short by dry weather. Special seedings of annual 
crops at different dates give greater assurance of good milk-produc- 
ing pasture when most needed. In most parts of the country, how- 
ever, lambs can be marketed best before the usual date of dry 
weather. 
On most high-priced lands a ewe's feed can be produced more 
cheaply from annual crops sown to be grazed than on permanent 
grass pasture. The extent to which the extra amount and value of 
the forage crop will offset the extra costs of fencing, plow^ing, and 
seeding depends upon the value of the land. 
PREVENTION OF PARASITES. 
Prevention of infection by stomach worms and other internal 
parasites is one of the most general and important advantages to be 
obtained by using temporary pastures for sheep. Losses by death 
or lack of thrift are most serious among lambs of flocks that are kept 
season after season on old grasslands. With only a few sheep on a 
large area of grass which is also pastured by other stock, the danger 
is less likely to be serious. With closer grazing by sheep during 
several months of each season the danger is increased and is most 
serious in sections or in seasons of high temperature and excessive 
moisture. Alternating permanent pastures during the season does 
not materiall}^ lessen the danger. 
Though rotation of temporary pastures is the most practicable 
means of evading stomach-worm infection, the plan requires that 
the flock does not go on a field a second time unless the land has 
been plowed in the interim or time enough has elapsed to cause the 
death of the stomach-w®rm larvae that are left upon the field grazed 
by infected sheep.^ 
On farms provided with a large number of fields with fences suit- 
able for sheep, a succession of clean temporary pastures can be pro- 
- Department of Agriculture Circular 47, " The Trevention and Treatment of Stomach 
Worms," explains the development of these parasites and the method of holding them in 
check by rotation of pastures. 
