i8 
PASTURING SHEEP ON ALFALFA. 
JACOB WEIL, Las Animas. 
During 1898 we did not pasture sheep on alfalfa, but 
have done so on two previous years. We were in the habit 
of taking them off the field when it was irrigated. Our 
lambs weighed about 65 pounds the first of October and we 
fattened them on the farm. 
F. T. WIBBER, Fredonia. 
W r e have pastured sheep on alfalfa for five years. The 
first year we lost ten per cent. Now we do not expect to 
lose any. We do not move the sheep when we irrigate. In 
1898 we pastured 500 ewes and their lambs on 160 acres of 
alfalfa from early in the season until the first of July. They 
were then turned on the range and stayed there until fall. 
We expect lambs so treated to weigh 70 pounds the first of 
October. We fatten our own lambs. 
A. F. KLINKERMAN, Fredonia. 
We have pastured sheep on alfalfa part or all of three 
seasons. One season we lost as high as ten per cent, by 
bloat, but this was due largely to inexperience. During 
1898 we let the ewes run on alfalfa during the six weeks of 
the lambing season and as soon as that was over we sent 
them to the range. We lost about one per cent, during the 
six weeks. We had about 500 ewes and their lambs on 50 
acres of alfalfa. We have always left the sheep on the land 
when irrigating it. We expect May lambs to weigh 60 
pounds the first of October if pastured on alfalfa. In 1898 
we turned the ewes and lambs on the range the first of June. 
It probably took two-thirds of the first cutting of alfalfa to 
lamb the sheep on it, but we consider ourselves well paid in 
saving of lambs and the start it gave them and the old ewes 
before turning them on the range. We are satisfied that 
we saved at least fifteen per cent, more lambs than could be 
done on the range and also saved in the expenses of herd¬ 
ers during lambing. 
L. M. CAMPBELL, Fredonia. 
We feed on alfalfa exclusively, no grain except to lambs 
born in the winter. 
First make a fence with posts 10 feet apart, nine barbed 
