PLAN No. 796. SHEEP PROFITABLE
Reading edition
A Kansas farmer made money in 1917 when the corn crop was unprofitable and here is how he succeeded.
Four years before he visited a fair where there were sheep and these were the first sheep he had ever seen so he bought three. A few days later he traded one shote for another sheep and in a few more days he gave up his Jersey cow for seven five-year old ewes and eight lambs. Soon he had gathered a flock of 59 sheep, including ewes and lambs of all ages, sizes and shapes. His interest grew until he had collected about 1000 head of sheep which averaged 30 lbs. to the head.
He allowed them to graze in a pasture of alfalfa and when this was gone he fed them at the rate of 2 lbs. of feed per head. In 100 days he nearly doubled his money. He took out the scrub ewes and wether lambs and fed them 55 days. Those he fed on corn weighed 72 lbs. per head and brought seven cents per lb.
The spring of 1917 he purchased 500 head. When the grass became too short he turned them into the corn to take care of themselves until November.
His investment of $8,000 through these sheep grew to $17,600. He has about 1,000 sheep and when the ewes have a good milk flow and do well he does not feed, otherwise he gives them oats. He says:
“I believe it is best to use self-feeders, feeding alfalfa-meal, corn chop, corn and kafir, or corn and barley mixed. I tried such a mixture with 100 head and for two days fed alfalfa-meal and corn mixture in the proportion of 2 lbs. of alfalfa for one pound of mixture. The next three or four days I fed half and half. The fifth day there was less meal, and on the sixth day I was feeding two-thirds corn chops and one-third alfalfa-meal. It took fifty-five days to feed them out. I did not keep track of the gains they made, but they did exceedingly well.”
This Kansas man is of the opinion that 1,000 head is all one man should handle since the lambing season takes all his time.