PASTURING SHEEP ON ALFALFA. 
19 
wires, stretched tight, feet high. This will turn a wolf 
or a dog and is the principal essential of running sheep on 
alfalfa pasture, since they must have free access to the feed 
day and night. Shade, salt and water are very essential. 
Have the sheep entirely free from hunger or thirst before 
turning them on the alfalfa. 
In December, 1895, I bought off the range 100 ewes, 
each with a lamb by its side. They did well until the alfalfa 
started in the spring. Then we attempted to herd them on 
the alfalfa in the day time and corral them at night. Our 
loss by bloat in ten days was 12 ewes and 15 lambs. We 
put them on native grass for a few days until we could build 
such a fence as I have described. We enclosed 10 acres of 
alfalfa and 5 acres of timber. This was in April, 1896. I 
drove them over a wheat field to the alfalfa pasture to be 
sure they were full. I have not lost a sheep or lamb since 
then by bloat and I have no fear of ever losing one. 
I have yet five head — four ewes and one buck — of the 
first 100 bought and they have never been out of that en- 
closure. The ewes are nine years old, the buck a few years 
older, and their teeth are as good as the average six-year- 
old on the range. We never take the buck away from the 
ewes. 
Two of the four ewes had twins last November and the 
same ewes had twins again this year (1898) in May. The 
four November lambs weighed in the middle of June 70 
pounds each,while the May lambs weighed at the same time 
twenty pounds each. 
We wintered 85 ewes in that pasture during 1897-98 and 
raised in the spring of 1898 135 lambs, forty of which — the 
wether lambs — we sold in Kansas City in April, where they 
averaged 60 pounds and brought 6^2 cents per pound, or 
$3.95 cents per head. The ewes sheared about 7>^ pounds 
of wool apiece. 
I think my pasture would support quite a number more 
sheep than we have on it, or about ten ewes and their lambs 
per acre. We irrigate with the sheep in the pasture and 
can see no bad effects. I do not advocate close pasturing. 
We have never fattened any lambs, selling them when they 
are three months old. 
Sheep do their principal feeding at night. It would not 
be profitable to corral sheep at night when in alfalfa pasture, 
even if it were not for bloating. They will do much better 
when they can have access to feed both day and night. 
Alfalfa pasture does not seem to be favorable to scab. 
