FEEDING OLDER SHEEP. 
In general it can be said that old sheep cost more per head than 
lambs, and when pnt on the market sell for about the same. The 
only chance for profit comes from the shorter time required to get 
them fat. There seems to be a small profit to be made from yearling 
wethers if one could happen to get some good stock at a reasonable 
price, fatten it quickly with corn chop at $15 per ton, and find a good 
market in Chicago. Under these extra favorable conditions the 
account would stand as follows: 
Cost of yearling wether.$2.25 
450 pounds hay @ $4 per ton.;.00 
100 pounds grain @ $15 per ton.75 
Labor of feeding.35 
Interest and death loss.06 
Freight and expense to Chicago. 1.00 
$5.31 
Receipts, 130 pounds @ $4.50.$5.85 
Profits per head.$ .54 
The fattening of ewes has about the same business basis as of old 
wethers. They cost less, about a dollar and a half per head, and they 
sell for enough less fully to over-balance the less cost. Few feeders 
make a regular business of feeding ewes, but those who raise tlieir 
own feeders have to fatten and get rid of their old ewes. Often in 
buying feeders a whole mixed bunch can be bought for about the 
same price as would be asked if the old ewes were sorted out. In 
these ways many thousand ewes are fed each year, but without much 
profit to the grower or feeder. 
The question was often asked last winter, as to how much wheat 
was being fed in place of corn. The best statistics available show 
that the 117,000 sheep fed for the Chicago market ate about 136,000 
bushels of wheat, 95,000 bushels of corn, and 840 tons of other grain. 
With this there were consumed 27,560 tons of alfalfa hay. Few 
of the sheep fed for the Colorado home market received much grain 
and the same is true of those sold as feeders or shipped to Omaha. 
The above figures therefore represent, probably, four-fifths of all. the 
grain fed to sheep in Colorado and probably about half of the hay fed. 
IVo attempt has been made to ascertain how much wheat was fed to 
steers, but it was of course a very large amount. 
SHEEP STATISTICS. 
Much care has been taken to get the facts concerning the sheep 
fed in Colorado the past season. It is believed that the following list 
is practically complete for the sheep that were shipped to the Chicago 
market. It does not include any sheep fed for the home market, sold 
to feeders, or shipped to Omaha. 
