PASTURING SHEEP ON ALFALFA. 
5 
Receipts. 
54 pounds wool, less cost of shearing. ... $ 7.00 
10 ewes @$ 3.50 . 35.00 
10 lambs @ $ 4.00 . 40.00 
Total receipts.$ 82.00 
58.80 
Net return.$ 23.20 
The above amount, $ 23 . 20 , represents the return for the 
labor of caring for the sheep and for the acre and a half of 
alfalfa pasture. If the estimate is made that it costs thirty 
cents per head to look after sheep through the winter,which 
is a close approximation where many sheep are kept, there 
remain $ 20.00 as the return for the alfalfa from one and a 
half acres of ground. This is more than four dollars a ton 
for alfalfa in the field, with the sheep doing all the haying, 
or more than five dollars a ton for the hay in the stack. 
These results also include the estimating the hay eaten dur¬ 
ing the winter at four dollars per ton. 
It should be remembered that these are the financial 
results, notwithstanding a nine per cent, loss from bloat on 
both the ewes and the lambs. While it may be that less 
than nine per cent, loss cannot be safely estimated on the 
ewes, it is seldom that a lamb bloats on alfalfa pasture and 
it would be safe to expect no loss from this source. 
It is a fair question whether we received an extra growth 
and corresponding return for the grain fed during the sum¬ 
mer. This cannot be told, as we had no check lot not 
receiving grain. Other sheepmen in Colorado who pasture 
sheep on alfalfa are not in the habit of feeding grain after the 
alfalfa gets in good growth. But on the other hand they do 
not get so large a growth on their lambs as we did. The 
grain fed through the summer amounted to 700 pounds, or 
$ 3.85 and it is probable, though not certain, that the lambs 
grewjthe 10 pounds each of live weight necessary to pay for 
the grain. LZZ3 
The only other person in the vicinity of Fort Collins 
who pastured sheep on alfalfa during the season of 1898 is 
C. W. Trimble. He pastured 40 ewes and 40 lambs on two 
acres of good alfalfa. They remained on the alfalfa day 
and night, rain and shine, all the season, except three times 
of four or five days each when the land was irrigated, then 
they were taken off and fed alfalfa hay. They had forty 
pounds of corn chop per day, i.e. } one pound a day for a ewe 
