THE SHEEP INDUSTRY ON THE MINIDOKA PROJECT. IL 
should have a wide, deep chest, a good spring of rib, good bone, and 
carry out uniformly. The fact that all undesirable characteristics 
of the ram may influence the entire lamb crop should not be lost 
sight of, but should prompt the farmer to exercise great care to see 
that the individual selected is uniformly good in all respects. 
BREEDING PRACTICES. 
_ As the climatic and other conditions of the Minidoka project are 
favorable to the production of early lambs, it is the common practice 
to breed for February and early March lambing. As the gestation 
period of ewes is 147 days, February and early March lambing re- 
quires that the ewes be bred in September or early October. It is 
seldom necessary in this locality that the ewes be ‘‘flushed’’—fed 
heavily in order to make them come in heat. 
Breeding mature ewes.—F¥or the small farm flock of 10 to 25 ewes 
a ram lamb may be used. In the flocks contaiming 25 to 60 ewes it 
is necessary to use an older ram. = It is the general practice to allow 
bucks to run with the ewes during the breeding period, but where 
a large number of ewes are to be bred to one ram, he is turned with 
the ewes only in the morning and in the evening. Some flockmasters 
make a practice of marking the ewe when she is bred, the mark indi- 
cating the time of breeding. The same mark can be used throughout 
the breeding season, provided its location is changed so as to indicate 
the week during which the ewe was bred. Such marking is convenient 
at lambing time, when it is desirable to isolate the ewes which are 
about to lamb. A further use of marking is that, in case the ram 
is not a sure breeder, it enables the flockmaster to determine early 
in the season which ewes have failed to conceive. Some sheep 
erowers paint the breast of the ram with a paint that ultimately fades 
from the wool. By a change in color of the paint used each week 
the approximate time of lambing 1s indicated. 
Breeding ewe lambs.—Owing to the present demand for sheep and 
the consequent desire on the part of flockmasters to see their flocks 
increase rapidly, the ewe lambs are sometimes bred. This practice 
is confined mostly to the Hampshire breed, but it is followed to 
some extent with the long wools as well. Usually the lambing per- 
centage obtained with ewe lambs ranges from 50 to 60. Ewes which 
have been bred as lambs are not as large when they are yearlings 
as ewes which have not been bred early. The difference in size is 
usually small, however, by the time the ewes are 2 years old. The 
breeding of ewe lambs can be practiced only in those flocks where 
the lambs come early and where growth is rapid from the beginning. 
As size In ewes is a very important consideration, the breeding of 
ewe lambs is to be regarded as an undesirable practice. 
