This article is for you if you are new to sheep raising because feeding sheep correctly is vital for their survival.The best part about feeding sheep is managing their nutritional needs efficiently in a cost-effective manner. You don’t need to be a pasture expert to know their diet requirements!Let’s get to know something about sheep’s behavior before we get into the nitty-gritty of their dietary requirements. Sheep are gregarious creatures, meaning they prefer to travel in a flock, so don’t be surprised if you always see a group of sheep grazing together; they’ll eat grasses at one part of the pasture and slowly proceed towards other parts of the pasture. The amount of land required, however, is deterministic of rainfall and soil type in your area.Did you know that an acre of pasture in a dry climate will not be enough for your sheep as an acre of pasture having a supply of plenty of rainfall? The size of your pasture does not matter as long as the weather conditions are suitable for the sheep. For instance, an improved 4,800 square yards (1 acre) of grassland in Maryland would suffice for ten sheep, whereas the arid range of West Texas would require 48,400 square yards (10 acres) of the same grassland to support a single sheep’s nutritional requirements!A sheep’s nutritional requirement and taste are determined by what they do on your farm, in the sense of what kind of activity they are involved in daily at your farm. Nursing or pregnant ewes require more nutrition. Ewes who aren’t raising lambs but are reared only for producing wool have comparatively lesser nutritional requirements and can manage by eating fewer legumes, grass, clover, or other plants.Sheep are pretty simple animals; their only health problems would arise from improper feed. Therefore, preparing a diet that sheep require could be confusing, which is why you should continue reading this blog and get a wholesome view of what food products sheep love and what food items should be fed to sheep.Don’t forget to check out what do rhinos eat? and what do peacocks eat? for more insights into the eating habits of various animals.What do sheep eat in the winter? Sheep are quite the grass lovers, and you’d find the sheep graze forbs, clover, grass, and other native pasture plants. Sheep also feed on legumes, alfalfa, and vetch, which offer ample nutrients to the sheep.Do grow these pasture plants if you can because they offer all possible nutritional needs when fed to sheep. It is essential to be aware of overgrazing as sheep tend to consume all plants, which could destroy the roots and eradicate most of your pasture plants. More generically, sheep are picky eaters while choosing a more nutritious pasture growth area, grazing and eating leafy plants to plants having fibrous stalks at times. But like we said earlier, sheep are easy-maintenance animals that will readily adapt to their environment and eat food consisting of nutrients that sheep require.Unfortunately, grazing grass can’t always be the feeding option for sheep to eat despite having plenty of pasture space; after all, the grass is a seasonal plant. In fact, at most places, the grass is available only during summer, spring, and early autumn, so what about winter? Well, a couple of norms to follow, and you will be all set to feed sheep with a nutritional diet even in the winter.All of this relies on the quality of soil and climate at your pasture. Firstly, if you have a healthy crop of grass owing to your pasture’s grass quality, you may be lucky enough to continue feeding your sheep grass well into the winters. In areas where there is the possibility of reasonably deep snow, they could still feed on thick and healthy grass, although you may still need to provide for other nourishment items like grass hay.Secondly, silage is another popular way to feed your livestock when they cannot graze during the winter. Silage is essentially fodder or a pickled pasture fermented to feed the livestock during the dry season. Green grass, rye, or corn is cut, fermented and compressed. In other words, silage is a preservation technique for forage, but if you are still confused about feeding your lamb or sheep hay or silage, then here are some subtle differences between the two. Hay is the grass that’s cut and dried to use as fodder for animals, whereas the silage is initially fermented and later stored in a silo before giving it to feed sheep. Moisture content in silage is also higher than hay.Most of the farmers provide sheep’s diet with stored food items such as pumpkins and squash. If oak trees are present on your property, you must feed your sheep with the acorns; they surely will love you for that. A good idea would probably be to stock up on good or average quality grass hay before winter begins. Ensure the hay is of clean, fresh, and good quality that’s kept off the ground. Interestingly sheep don’t benefit well from very rich hay like alfalfa unless they are pregnant, lactating, or ill. If you do, however, have pregnant ewes in winter, then supplement their diet with four lbs ( 1.8 kg) of high-quality grass during the first 15 weeks of their pregnancy and during the last four weeks, add a pound (0.45 kg) of corn. When the young lambs are born, keep in mind that you will have to increase the hay content to five lbs (2.2 kg) daily and have 15% crude protein sheep feed.List Of Foods That Sheep Eat If you are breeding a sheep, keep this critical piece of information always in your mind- sheep are ruminants; they should only consume pasture or hay and not any formulated sheep product. The reason behind this is their digestion process, so let’s have a quick look into the digestion process of adult sheep to understand the best possible sheep food list you could prepare for your sheep.Sheep are ruminants that indicate that these animals have a four-chamber stomach similar to cows. Rumen, a part of their digestive system, acts as the fermenting vat with numerous microorganisms; therefore, it is evident that sheep first ferment the food and then absorb nutrients from the resultant fermented mixture. However, a young lamb doesn’t have functioning rumens, which is why the mother first nurses them, and then highly digestible foods are provided to this young lamb.To ensure your sheep’s good health, the foods you give it to eat should consist primarily of fresh pasture, grasses, and dried hay. The amount of food a sheep feeds on per day is estimated based on the dry matter, which refers to the remaining food if all the moisture was removed. The amount of dry matter a sheep consumes to suffice their nutrition depends on food, temperature, sheep’s body weight, and individual health.Remember, sheep being ruminants, should be given enough roughage in the form of grass and hay. This would provide them with access to a lot of fiber contents in their food that would ultimately aid in their digestion process. Sheep eat a lot of green grass, and hence your pasture should have an abundance of grass along with a small number of legumes such as red clover. Your local cooperative office should suggest an optimal seed mix that would complete the nutritional needs of sheep. The mix could consist of various seeds like the sunflower seeds.A critical point before feeding your sheep pasture is to guarantee that there are no plants that would be toxic to sheep or the lambs. The second thing to keep in mind is to divide your pasture into various plants, even weeds, at times because some sheep consume weeds before munching on grasses. You should have proper pasture rotation to avoid defoliation of pasture! Yes, sheep eat for seven to eight hours, and often, they are found grazing so close to the ground that the sheep can quickly defoliate the pasture. On average, sheep eat in the hours around dawn, late afternoon, and near sunset. It is highly recommended that you feed them somewhere around the middle of the day so their standard grazing patterns aren’t disturbed.Foods like timothy or orchard grass could also be given as supplements, a break from the monotony from the usual foods if you ask us. However, this would be location-specific, depending on what is available in your area.Nutrition also consists of other nutrients like vitamins D, E, and A and trace minerals such as cobalt, iodine, copper, manganese, molybdenum, zinc, and selenium. So, feeding foods abundant with these nutrients is equally essential. Hay, green grass, grain, legumes, and other healthy plants are not always enough to feed sheep and keep it healthy. A sheep should also consume sheep-formulated minerals either from mineral blocks in a clean holder or as loose minerals in a clean dispenser.Moreover, a deficiency in any one of the minerals or vitamins would lead to catastrophic health consequences such as paralysis, stiffness, or even neurological disorders! A 2:1 calcium to phosphorous ratio is recommended to prevent urinary calculi disease. Black oil sunflower seeds are natural vitamin E boosters, and they also help improve the lambs or sheep’s coats, so do feed sheep with these foods.Ensure your sheep is eating a proper mix of all the minerals above and if there are still issues such as bloating, consider adding baking soda to the existing mineral mix. Too much soda would again cause trouble for the sheep, so add it carefully to their treats and diet!Surprisingly, even sheep need to be kept motivated, more so if you have kept them tied. Otherwise, as a consequence, the lambs or sheep will sneak out of their space and come to you! So the easiest way to keep the sheep on your farm motivated is to keep them happy. To keep them happy is to occasionally give them treats like grains, vegetables, oats, fruits, corn, and alfalfa as part of foods offered to eat from your house.What do sheep drink?Fresh and clean water is essential to both the sheep and lambs. They drink water, but the amounts vary based on their age, meal, and diet condition. Adult sheep consume between half to five gallons (1.8-18 l) of water per day, depending on their physiological condition, the water content in the foods they eat, and environmental conditions. Their water requirement increases significantly during lactation and late gestation periods.If you are wondering about how to make provisions for water for the sheep, then there are multiple ways. You have the flexibility to provide free-flowing water or provide it through tubs, buckets, stock tanks, automatic waterers, or troughs. Ensure you keep the water clean from hay, fecal matter, and straw. Sheep need relatively warm water during cold weather and water kept in the shade if it’s hot and humid outside.Fun fact! your sheep is more likely to drink from still water as opposed to flowing water from a stream, and it is also recommended that you don’t let your sheep from natural water sources as that may lead to environmental problemsOne cause of worry you may have is if your sheep or lambs are drinking less water than their usual intake but don’t worry! Because the foods they are grazing may be high in moisture content which suffices their water needs. As the grass or forage gets drier, they start consuming more water.What can sheep not eat?There are always yes’s, and no’s when it comes to eating, and that’s the case with a sheep as well. To have healthy sheep on your farm, you have to maintain your pasture, the plants in it, the forage you feed, and most of all, keep track of all foods that are stored or are to be given as supplements soon; they should never be toxic. So what are some of the food items you should avoid giving to your sheep to eat? Let’s have a look at some of them.Alfalfa pastures should be kept at a minimum as they are high in protein and calcium content which can cause serious health issues such as urinary calculi and obesity. This is especially harmful in neutered male sheep. Alfalfa should be given to pregnant females, babies, and sheep recovering from an illness or struggling to keep their weight on to eat.A sheep should not eat much grain and formulated sheep food from farm supply stores; this could make a sheep obese and result in dangerous and painful urinary calculi. It can also be a cause of another disease called laminitis. If one of your sheep is underweight and needs extra nutrition due to some underlying medical condition, then that’s when you can feed your sheep grains. Although as an alternative, you could incorporate a mix of soaked timothy pellets with beet pulp or soaked timothy hay pellets in the sheep’s daily supplements. For nursing mothers or underweight sheep, a sunflower meal or soybean with certain protein supplements could work out well too.A premixed diet consisting of other animal products is often fed; for instance, fortified goat feed containing too much copper is fed, increasing excessive copper levels for a usual sheep. Hence, please do not feed your sheep or your lambs an excess of any nutritional item as it can be toxic.Remember, readers, that your sheep should not be fed large quantities of bread! The fat and grain content could potentially lead to grain poisoning and obesity. Ensure you feed bread in small amounts and monitor your sheep’s health regularly.Avoid feeding avocado or any part of that plant and rhubarb. A sheep should not consume these plants as they are both considered toxic to them. Never feed your sheep celery, citrus fruits, pepper, eggplant, tomatoes, and parsley; they usually cause gastric distress.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked our suggestions for what do sheep eat? Then why not take a look at what do insects eat Or Barbary Sheep facts.!
This article is for you if you are new to sheep raising because feeding sheep correctly is vital for their survival.
