Heppner gazette. [volume] (Heppner, Morrow County, Or.) 1892-1912, 1908-12-31
SHEEP-RAlSiNG ON
IRRIGATED LANDS
IDAHO ran CHER VERY SUCCESSFUL
D. C. Mullen, Of Nampa. reIls How
He Started-lllustrates Many
Interesting Points.

The following article, by D. C. Mul-
len of Nampa, Idaho, is one of three
contributions to the Boise Capital
News made by that gentleman, who is
rancher near Nampa:
The editor Of the Capital News hav-
ing kindly encouraged me to write a
little more on the subject of sheep on
the farm, | will try to give few fig
ures on what | have done in a small
way. These articles are not written
for entertainment, but are strictly for
business. My sheep are lambing now,
and | have but little for anything
but business. Work on the farm at
any time is anything but lazy mans 5
job, but winter finds us with the most
spare time, and like to have the
lambs come early, SO | can give them
full attention.
The one time that you must look
after sheep is in lambing. If weather
is cold they may chill to death; ,occa-
sionally mother will not own her
lamb, and in case of twins you must
see they keep together at first. We
have little pens to put them in, where
there are twins or mothers are in
clined to leave them. However. they
are generally the best of mothers, and
grieve over their dead lambs in way
to make your heart ache. On the
ranch there are none of the dreadful
cries of starving orphans that you
hear one the range My first sheep
was one of these orphans. We made
one visit to the lambing ground, and
that was all | ever wanted. | can
| hear those cries yet and the time will
come when such things will not be
tolerated. There will be laws to
cover this, just as there is for feeding
and watering stock in shipping. These
orphan losses in a financial way are
also favorable to ranch sheep. We al
ways have few for some unavoidable
reason but we raise them on cows
milk like calf. Rangemen tell me it
is better to have lambs some later, so
they will have green grass to eat, and
that they do better. We do not find
it so The lambs will begin to nibble
at the hay when three or four days
old, and soon eat as we'll as their
mothers. They are all started and
care for themselves when spring work
is on, when most farmers are worked
to death. The rangemen forget that
when they are lambing that is all they
have to do, while farmer has many
| other things to attend to.
Conditions Differ.
| find in nearly every way that
sheep on the ranch and range are en-
tirely different businesses. The range
man, from a money point of view, just
lets his orphans die, loses stray sheep
in the brush without bothering about
1t, II.
selves or die. But such methods on
the ranch would be a disgrace, We
will expect to keep better grade. or
even pure breds, and so cannot afford
such losses Here is where | suffered.
When | started in on sheep. only one
man that | knew of was handling them
on the ranch, and | had no one to ask
advice of when in trouble except the
range man, and all he knew was to
let them die could do that without
any help, 50 just had to blunder along
reading all | could find in papers on
the subject and studying my own.
| forgot to say how little | knew of
stock, and of farm work except what
l had read, until | came to the ranch
here eight years ago. | scarcely knew
a sheep when | saw one, so it is very
evident if | could make it pay at all
that any farmer raised to the business
ought to make big thing of it. Dis
cussions on sheep in the papers have
been a great help to me, and may we
hope these lines on my mistakes may
help some other farmer from going
the same rough road Let us consult
together and profit by others mis-
takes.
Sheep Vary.
Before | give my figures | would
like to say that my sheep are the ordl
nary scrub, range sheep, that | have
picked up anywhere from one to half
a dozen. They are all sizes, and coarse
and fine wool of ali grades. The one
trouble in getting started on the ranch
is that range men don't want to sell
hundred or two, so you have to pick
them up wherever you can. SO mine
are in no way a selected lot. This
simply emphasizes what | said above
about my making any profit Pure
bred sheep or good grades. like any
other stock, will pay better than
scrubs. and | can say right here |
don't intend to always have scrubs;
but they proved both cheap and profit
able, and are especially good to prac-
tice on, for a beginner is bound to
lose more or less, and, in fact, any one
in stock must expect OmedOsses.
| will only give my last three years
receipts:
19O5-Average fleece, 10 pounds, at
154c, $155.
19O6-Average fleece, pounds, at
2Oc, $1.4O.
19O7-Average fleece, 63 pounds, at
19c, S1.24.
This is a bad showing, as every year
my average was lower, but let me ex-
plain. In 1905 my sheep were all good
ewes, only one old range sheep in the
lot, and that sheared ~ pounds. They
averaged just a trifle less than 10
pounds The next year | made a bad
break buying some old range pelters.
| figured that the wool and lamb
would pay the bill and would not
count the old sheep anything. But it
didn't pan out. They only sheared At
and Al pounds, and some died. more
Tess-Mr. Dumley's just the mean
est man. He told me last evening he'd
teach me how to whistle If I'd pucker
up my lips