Gloucester County Democrat. (Woodbury, N.J.) 1878-1932, 1898-02-03
LAMB FEEDING.
Winter Quarters, Lean Meat Kations,
Shearing, Need Of Water. Etc.

The animal must live, ana TO i've
must be kept warm, and this will be
done first from the food eaten and all
the growth will come later from any
surplus of food above these require
ments Very much the largest part of
the food of support goes to maintaining
warmth. Under ordinary circumstances
20 per cent is thus used, and the con-
ditions may be such that much larger
proportion will be used for thisspurpose.
So far as any hope of profit is con-
cerned this part of the food might just
as we'll be thrown into stove and
burned as to be consumed in the ami
NAL S body as fuel.
1t follows of course, that if the lamb
to be fed is put into warm quarters less
food will be used as fuel and more of it
will be utilized in making growth. We
should then make the folds or barns for
feeding just as warm as the health of
the lamb will allow. have tried differ
ent temperatures and find that about 30
or 55 degrees F. is the most desirable.
But we will find that no lamb can en-
dure bad air and be healthy. Their
lungs are sensitive, so we must see
to it that the fold is well ventilated
and the air kept pure and free from dis
ease germs. If properly ventilated with
shoots from the fold up out at the roof,
this can be secured without making
them too cold or having draft blow
ing in on the sheep. Nothing can be
worse than to attempt to ventilate by
the windows as it is impossible to do
this without having more or less drafts
blowing in on the lambs, and when this
occurs they are sure to take cold.
No animal is more ayerse to having
wet quarters than the sheep, and no
lamb or sheep can be made to do well
in fold having the manure or floor
wet. Nor must it be allowed to become
filthy. 1t should be made dry and then
kept Uttered with leaves or straw SO as
to keep clean, and when SO it need not
be cleaned out more than two or three
times during the winter.
We know another thing. All motion
is at the expense of energy, and energy
comes only from food eaten If now we
keep the lambs very quiet, they will
use less food in this way, and more can
go to making growth. Nothing can be
more wasteful and foolish than to at
tempt to feed lot of lambs running
loose over the fields or yards. Not only
do they waste much food in the needless
exercise. but they are running over and
crowding each other from morning till
night. To do their best they should be
sorted according to size and no more
than % put together in pens. in warm
quarters, not less than eight feet in
height in the clear, and when SO kept
may be safely loosed in pen that shall
give each lamb ten square feet OF floor
space. In order that the lambs may have
ample feeding room the pens may be
made only 10 feet wide and long
enough SO as to give each lamb one foot
of feeding rack and trough.
The common notion that lambs do
not require much water is very falla-
cious. No animal needs more or will
drink oftener when it has chance, and
no animal is half SO particular as to the
cleanliness of the water or trough from
which it drinks. The drinking troughs
should be up just high enough SO they
can drink easily and should be kept
clean enough SO the shepherd would be
willing to drink from it.
AS has been said, we want large
amount of lean meat put upon lambs.
We know also that the foods having an
excess of the heterogeneous elements tend
to the production of lean meat. We
should also know that sheep, lambs es-
pecially, are very fond of variety in
their food. We should therefore feed
largely on heterogeneous foods, such as
bran, oats, oilmeal and gluten meal for
grain, and no forage is SO good for
lambs as good, early cut, well cured,
bright clover hay, and if we have plen-
ty of this we may safely add quite
proportion of corn to the grain ration.
In feeding grain it is we'll to commence
with very small amount and if posi-
BILE begin to feed little while still on
pasture, and the amount may be gradu-
ally increased so long as the grain will
show that they are making a good use
>of what they eat.
As we want the meat juicy as well as
lean and as the lambs must be kept
healthy some sort of succulent food
should be provided Nothing is better
than good silage, which can be safely
fed in as large quantities as they will
eat. Roots and turnips, rutabagas and
mangolds are all good for succulence,
and if the lambs are kept warm there
is no danger of feeding them too much
succulent food-in fact, have found
that they will do better when fed both
silage and roots than when fed on either
alone.
Regularity in feeding is of the utmost
importance--in fact, it will not do at
all to feed haphazard. They are SO SEN
sitive in this respect that they should
be fed each day i'll the same order as re-
CARDS pens. Their stomach is as good as
a clock, and unless fed at just such an
hour and in the same order each day
they will fret and worry off all the
gain you could expect.
One thing more--I would advise the
shearing of the lambs when first put in
to the folds and for these reasons: 1t
takes all the ticks off with the wool,
and no lamb can make satisfactory
gain with no more than a half score of
lively ticks; they occupy less space aft
er shorn and can get about mere freely,
and then you can keep their folds much
warmer.
/ hope farmers who are finding their
crops growing less will be induced to go
Il q 1. l.
sure those who do SO Systematically and
stick to it will at the end Of five years
find a goodly sum to the credit of the
lambs but what is far better they will
find that the rich manure made, if ju-
diciously used, will make good show
ing in increasing their crops. S.
Woodward in National Stockman.