The interior journal., 1917-01-26
The Interior Journal Stanford Kentucky: Friday January 26
We'll Favors Sheep
Big Lexington Stock Buyer Says
Craze Them With Cattle

Jonas We'll, of Lexington, one OF |
the leading cattle growers and dis
tributors of the Ohio Valley, is
staunch friend of the sheep. In an
address before the annual conven-
ton of the Kentucky Sheep Breeders
Association there, he showed that |
cattle and sheep can be economical |
ly and profitably Joined in feeding.
He said:
"Can sheep be grown profitably |
with cattle? My answer is, they can.
"The sheep and its byproducts is
one of the most profitable and impor-
tant meat animals. 1t is the most |
economical animal to raise, requir-
ing the smallest percentage of grain |
or other high priced feeds, thriving |
to greater extent upon ordinary
grass and low grade vegetation; in
fact. is the only meat food animal
that can be made good and fat on a
strictly grass ration. Since cattle are
used principally to Craze our pastures
and meadows in Kentucky, the ques-
ton comes up: Can sheep be grown |
profitably. taking into consideration
their interference with the satisfac-
tory grazing of cattle?
Il feel confident that limited
number of sheep grazed with a lot
of cattle, for illustration, say twenty
five or fifty sheep to fifty cattle, III
a pasture of seventy-five or more
acres of grass are not drawbacks, but
can be made advantageous in bring
ing about cleaner and therefore bet
ter pastures. The sheep eat out most
of the obnoxious weeds and will con-
tinue to eat them, providing they are
changed every ten days to fresh
pasture, even if you had not more
than two pastures on the farm to
Craze them in.
II often have watched how eager
ly sheep, when put in fresh pasture
90 for weeds for the first few days.
They afterwards eat grass, and don't
want the weeds any longer, but
when taken out for a few days, and
brought back, they will eat weeds
again. Sheep must be changed at
least twice a month, especially so
during the spring and summer sea-
sons, in order to keep them doing
well.
"This constant changing of pas
ture, every ten days or two weeks,
keeps the sleepy smell off the grass,
which is the only objection to graz
ing cattle in the same pasture with
sheep. The old saying change of pas
ture makes fat live stock, applies not
only to sheep but also to cattle and
where cattle and sheep are kept sep
arate from each other wherever pos
sible and by exchanging pasture the
two could be kept separate entirely.
"I am firmly of the belief that
sheep are absolutely necessary to pro-
cure good stands of clover and blue
grass. They are the only proper
means of tramping the seed in the
ground, besides they are the only
animals that can be used to eat out
the weeds that would sap out the
strength of our young bluegrass pas
lures and clover fields. | certainly
give the sheep due credit for what
| limited success we have had in pro-
curing good and satisfactory stands
of grasses.
"Sheep are the only meat food
animals that can be made marketable
without grain. Therefore, no plowing
| is necessary to procure their feed.
| This makes them the more valuable
animal towards maintaining soil fer
tility. In addition, they are of most
valuable assistance in keeping our
meadows and bluegrass pastures
clean of weeds. The above facts make
sheep the most desirable animals on
the farm.
"There are not any animals on the
farm in Kentucky today that net a
surer and larger percentage of profit
than our sheep, and will venture to
predict that the sky-high prices now
existing for sheep, hogs and cattle,
will be retained by the sheep for
some time, after both cattle and hogs
have gone down.
"Sheep-raising is business espec-
cially suited to Kentucky and could
and should be enlarged to the advan-
tage of the State"