Nutrition and Feeding

Optimal sheep flock productivity and growth are only possible if you give your sheep an adequate diet consisting of water, carbohydrates and fats, proteins, minerals, and vitamins. You may need to include additional nutrients when required. Sheep feeding and nutrition requirements are dependent on animal age and gender.

In this section, you’ll find a range of information relating to the management of sheep nutrition, feeding and delivery, testing water quality, and estimating a flock's water needs. Whether you’re raising a small flock of sheep for your own needs or going into full-scale production, you’ll find tips on accelerated lamb production, how to manage parasites with good nutrition, and much more.

Sheep Feed Management

Knowing how, when, and what to feed your flock is one of the most important things to learn for anyone wanting to raise sheep. Sheep also need an adequate supply of fresh, clean water. When feeding your flock, the ultimate goal is to keep your sheep healthy while also keeping costs low. One option is to integrate trees, livestock, and forage crops together on the same land to create dual income from livestock and timber, using a process called silvopasture.

Pasture is a term used to describe a well-managed grazing system containing improved grasses and some legumes. During the summer, cool-season grasses slow down their growth, which can cause problems for grazers. Sheep farmers must pay careful attention in order to avoid overgrazing. Good grazing management can also minimize the impact of parasites when combined with genetic selection.

Supplementary feeding of sheep may be necessary when pastures are deficient in energy and protein. The manufactured feed has to meet FDA requirements for the development and implementation of a modern, preventive, and risk-based system for food safety. This is stated within the Food Safety Modernization Act (FSMA).

Weaning is another occasion when you may be required to introduce special feeding procedures. Adopting the best weaning practices limits the stress to both ewes and lambs in the flock.

Sheep Pasture and Forage Management

Whatever pasture and forage management program you decide to adopt for your sheep flock, the most important factor is that it achieves an appropriate balance between available feed ingredients. It’s therefore crucial to know the nutrient content, especially when it comes to forages and forage quality management. Various methods of feed analysis are available and can help you determine whether sheep nutrient requirements are being met. Minerals such as calcium are essential for supporting skeletal and nervous system functions.

Forage quality is the basis of animal health in a grazing system. Quality is impacted by plant development and the timing of grazing. You can integrate warm-season annuals into cool-season perennial grazing to improve the quality of the grazing. An effective grazing management system can also include grazing crop residues and cover crops.

A pasture can comprise many different kinds of plants, not all of which will be beneficial for your flock. During the summer, in particular, the risk of poisonous plants in pastures increases. Being able to recognize and manage plants such as poison hemlock is crucial.