, 1906-02-28
OF
FEED TESTS
EXPERIMENT STATIONS REPORT
ON LAMBS ENCOURAGING TO
LARAMIE PLAINS MEN.
Director Buffum Gives Net Result of
Pea Feeding and Alfalfa and Grain
Feeding as Determined at the
ShambIes-Net Profit of About
One Dollar Per Head.

The following article was written by
Prof. B. C. Buffum, the director of the
experiment station, n published in
the last R%anchman's Reminder:
The final results OF the years lamb
feeding have not been brought together,
but enough is known to lend great en-
enlargement to our farmers. The feed
ing trials by our Experiment Station are
being brought to a close, and all the
pea-fed lambs from the Laramie Plains
have been marketed. Early in the sea-
son Mr.. E. J. Bell shipped four carloads
to the St. Joseph market and received
$40, which was the top price for the
day they were sold These lambs were
only fed s~ixty-fve days by herding them
on $50 acres of field pease, and Mr.. Bell
estimates a return of more than SIS
per acre.
This month from our Experiment Sta
ton we shipped a carload of fat lambs
to the Omaha market. One deck of
these lambs had been experimentally fed
on alfalfa and corn, and were in the
pink of condition. They were subjected
to a rather bad run TO market, were n
loaded twice, and showed a shrink of
eight pounds per head. They sold out
at IS pounds for $40, receiving ten
cents more than the best price paid the
previous day. There were no other
lambs on the market the day these lambs
were sold. They dressed out over S.
per cent. The other deck, consisting of
90 lambs, had been fed on peas by allow
ing them to run in the field and eat what
they would. Some snow storms in jan
uary covered the peas FIVE or six inches
deep, so there wa a time when the
lambs were digging for their rations.
These lambs were not so fat as the corn
fed lot, but they only shrank three and
one-half pounds going to Omaha and
weighed out 70 pounds. They brought
$695 and dressed out over So per cent.
We paid So per head for Our lambs
and a high price for our corn, about one
dollar per hundred pounds, and then
struck a low market, SO the trial may be
considered a good one. A rough esti-
mate gives about one dollar per head
profit on the corn and alfalfa lot, count
ing the alfalfa eaten worth S. per ton.
The lot fed on peas will give nearly the
same net profit per head, as there is an
indicated return around $40 per acre for
the peas. This provides a fair margin
of profit on our lands and indicates that
our lambs may be fattened on home
grown foods independent of the corn
belt.
A number of smaller lots of lambs were
fed on various experimental ~rations, and
accurate data of all the feeding will be
published in a future bulletin OF the
Station.
We believe the lamb feeding industry
will become a most important one on
the Laramie Plains. The picture on our
front cover this month shows, at the top,
some ranchmen at our last Short Course
examining the lambs which were feed
ing in the pea fields. The pictures in
the center and at the bottom are of the
hundred lambs fattening on the peas,
ninety of which were sent to Omaha.
Enough has been done to prove that
feeding peas TO lambs in this manner is
an assured success where the snowfall is
not greater than it is in Southern Wyo-
ming. Another year we expect to har-
vest a crop OF peas and test their feeding
value when fed from the stack to lambs
in the feeding pens. We plan also to
investigate the ACCESSIBILITY of using a
finishing period for pea-fed lambs on
barley or corn. b. c. BUFFUM.