The Churchill county standard. (Fallon, Nev.) 1908-1920, 1915-01-20
VALUE OF SHEEP ON FARMS
/. ID. O'Donnell Tells OF tie Great
Utilitarian Value OF
Sheep.
By 1. d. O'Donnell, Supervisor of
Irrigation.

lrrlgatlOn.
Our irriagtion farmers have this
year experienced difficulty in selling
their large crop OF alfalfa and also
in securing money to purchase live
stock through which to market the
forage crops. This condition will
continue and probably become more
pronounced until such time as our
farmers can handle on their farms
all the live stock the land will sup
port.
Sheep raising on a small scale
should receive the consideration of
every irrigationist. To the man
who understands the business there
Is profit In sheep raising. This class
of live stock is certain to become
more in demand as the beef produc-
tion in this country continues to
decrease. The fact that the large
ly being cut up into small agricult-
ural tracts makes 1t apparent that
sheep raising will be confined more
and more to cultivated farms.
Sheep furnish two sources of
revenue-mutton and wool. The
farmer with a small flock of sheep
should give first consideration to
mutton and depend upon wool as a
by-product.
AS a general rule the number of
sheep which may be easily handled
In connection with general farming
is one sheep to about four acres of
land-that Is, farmer on eighty
acres can easily handle twenty
sheep per year with very little out
lay of labor or marketable feed
1t requires very little money to
get start raising sheep. 1t is not
necessary to purchase pure bred and
high-priced animals; in most any
sheep market one may purchase
young, fairly good ewes for reason
bred up by the use of a sire of one of
the good mutton breeds.
Sheep do not require expensive
buildings for their protection. An
ordinary shed with dry floor and
free from drafts is all that is neces-
sary; in many sections the sheep are
kept In the open entirely. It pays.
however, to protect them from Sc
we're weather.
Where reasonably good arrange
ments are made for the flock, 1t will
be found that sheep require less
care than any ether class of live
stock; this holds true particularly
during the periods when farmers
are usually busy in the fields.
Sheep increase the fertility of the
soil. Sheep manure ranks high as
a fertilizer and 1t Is distributed by
them evenly and thinly over the
land on which they Craze. In addi-
ton, the sheep tramp the manure
into the soil preventing it being
wasted, and this fact has earned
fors them the title golden hoof."
II is not profitable to confine
sheep to a diet of weeds. but 1t is
particularly noticeable that farms on
which sheep are raised are usually
free from weeds. Sheep will eat
90 per cent of the weed pests in this
This fact is one of the
main. reasons why farmers should
have sheep on cultivated farms.
During the past summer the recla-
nation service has tried the expert
ment of running sheep on the canal
banks on the Salt River project in
Arizona for the purpose of keeping
down the Johnson grass, which is a
serious menace to the orderly main
tenance of canals in that section.
The sheep proved satisfactory and
profitable In this work, and it is
thought that future trials along this
line will result in increased profits.
To secure the best possible profits
from the farm 1t is necessary to keep
that sheep will eat food that other
live stock will not touch, and a
small flock can be raised each year
with practically no increase in ex-
penses.