The Morning Tulsa daily world. [volume] (Tulsa, Okla.) 1919-1927, 1922-11-26
OKLAHOMA SHEEP
INDUSTRY GROWS
Most Growers in State
Went Into Business Up
on Temporary Basis


Assistant Profession Of Animal lTushnu.
dry Oklahoma A. q NJ college
The uumhcr OF sheep ON okla
homa farms January /. 1920, was
10000. In 1881 the number was
the same. The difference in value
for these two years rs tl22l 0O0 Tor
1920 and SG93.O00 for 1921. The
difference in value of these sheep
is simply an Indication Of the fall
in price between 1919 aud 1920 II
~ of importance to note that the
number of sheep did not decrease.
We have no Information available
as to how many sheep are on okla
homa farms at present bur there
are probably less than that given
above.
Oklahoma ranks very near the
bottom as a sheep producing state.
This is rather uneXplainable as Kan
sas has almost four times az many
sheep as Oklahoma and Texas Is
one of the largest sheep producing
states. In the union Oklahoma H.
very well adapted TO the sheep busi-
ness. from the standpoints OF both
growing and fattening The Okla
home experiment station has proven
that the grain sorghums grown in
oklahoma VIII produce very good
results in fattenlng lambs. also that
the breeding focks can be cared for
here at very little expense. We have
the advantage over some OF the
northern states in that our climate
Is much more mild and therefore
requires iess winter feeding. There
have been several attempts in the
last few years 10 Increase the num-
ber Of sheep on oklahoma farms So
far these efforts have met with very
little encouragement.
In and Out of Business.
Most Of the sheep men in Okla
homa do not go into the business
permanently but simply go in for
yaer or two because prospects look
particularly bright. when their
purofits are less than they expected
they Immediately 80 out OF the sheep
business. This attitude Of the farm
eTs il very hard to overcome and is
the biggest problem that we meet
in attempting to stock Oklahoma
with sheep. During the past winter
the farmers who were fortunate
enough to feed lambs made some ex-
eremely large profits. Winter lambs
last fall were selling for from TO
6 y cents. We can very easily see
that IL viii take some expert feed
ing and handling in order to make
any money OH this priced stuff.
Breeding ewes are selling at above
Z u cents and here again the farm
ers should he conservative and al
though IL is advisable to buy II isn't
advisable to buy very large numbers
at the present price.
There should be n few sheep on
every farm in the state. The only
way this can be brought about is
for the farmers to buy when sheep
are fair price and stay in the bust
ness Buying large numbers OF sheep
az high prices such as they are this
fan will cause losses and nelghbor-
ing farmers will hesitate to buy
few sheep.
We cannot say that the sheep in
dustry In Oklahoma today has any
brighter outlook than IL had several
years ago. The one way we an
see to remedy this IL for the county
agents TO recommend that their
farmers buy a few head of ewes and
discourage anyone buying unless
they intend staying in the business
for several years. II all farmers
would practice this, the sheep busl-
ness would get on firm founda-
tion