After lambs become two weeks old they will begin to nibble for salt. If
you do not allow them the salt they will eat any loose dirt. This may
kill a few in any case. Should your pasture contain much alkali, or soil
containing small quantities of arsenic matter, you are likely to lose
quite a number of the lambs about the time they begin eating, as they
invariably nibble for a salt substance first. If convenient, feed the
loose salt in troughs only; otherwise use block salt. Allow about three
ounces per ewe each week, or roughly speaking twenty pounds of salt for
each one hundred ewes and their lambs per week. They will require this
amount only where they are on very soft, green feed. Upon the range,
where there is considerable natural salt feed, or the water is strongly
alkalized, they will not consume that amount. Where they are given salt
at regular intervals there is no danger of over-feeding. Salt is good
for the wool; it makes good healthy lambs.