PASTURING SHEEP ON ALFALFA. 
21 
Here we are to consider the pasturing of lambs during the 
whole summer that are to be fattened on the same farm 
during the fall and winter for the eastern markets. 
The practical question is, can this be done with as much 
profit as to range the lambs through the summer and then 
bring them to the farm for winter feeding. To the feeder 
of the Arkansas Valley at the present time, this is the simple 
proposition. But the time will come when the problem will 
present itself in another form. In the feeding districts of 
Northern Colorado that time has already come and the 
problem as it will appear in the future is this: There is or 
will be on the farm a certain amount of alfalfa. By which 
method can I realize the more profit, by making hay of it 
and feeding it to lambs in the winter or by using part of it 
as pasture for ewes and lambs during the summer and the 
rest to support the ewes during the winter? 
The average of the statements from the various individ¬ 
uals seems to be about ten ewes and their lambs to one 
acre of good alfalfa pasture, running on the land from the 
middle of April until the first of October. This would re¬ 
quire very good alfalfa and it is probable that eight ewes 
to the acre would be nearer average conditions. The ewes 
would feed on the stubble fields practically without cost 
during October and November, leaving four and a half 
months that they would have to be hay fed. 
A full grown ewe will eat five pounds of hay per day or 
two and three-fourth tons of hay to run the eight ewes 
through the winter. If we estimate an acre to produce four 
tons of alfalfa, then it would require three-fourths of an acre 
to supply hay for the winter and one acre to pasture them 
during the summer. 
What return could be expected as the income from this 
acre and three-fourths of alfalfa? For the last four years 
lambs have averaged being worth four cents a pound live 
weight on the farm the first of October. It is fair to presume 
that a person who was planning for pasturing alfalfa would 
have the lambs dropped in March and they ought then to 
weigh 70 pounds the first of October and be worth $2.80 
each. ,The ewes would need to be fed grain for sixty days, 
one pound per day, costing in all forty cents for each ewe. 
The ewes should, shear seven pounds of wool each, worth at 
least ten cents per pound. 
The whole account would stand thus: 
