We have already touched on dieting habits in our blog on our sheep breeding article. But today we are going to look at dieting habits for sheep in general, to help maintain health in your flock. This will help to reduce disease in your flock while also increasing productivity. This article will be a bit on the sciency side, but I will keep it as straight forward as I can!
Sheep dietary needs are split into 8 groups:
- Energy
- Protein
- Minerals
- Salt
- Calcium and Phosphorus
- Vitamins
- Fibre
- Water
This may seem like a lot, but it is not too dissimilar to our own diet. Sheep just get them from different sources from us and in different quantities. So, let us break them down.
Energy
Sheep are mammals and this means that they can produce their own body heat. This is done by eating food and when this food is broken down in their body, it produces heat. A healthy sheep therefore needs quite a bit of food compared to another animal of a similar size that is not a mammal. There’s a reason why crocodiles are often able to eat only once a year!
Sheep need therefore to have a large part of their diet be “bulky”. Sheep get most of their energy needs from carbohydrates. This can come in two forms for sheep. They can be in concentrates or forages. Concentrates are much richer in carbohydrates and so are a larger source of energy. Examples include grains. Forages are sources that contain fibre or cellulose, think hay or grass.
It may seem obvious to you to focus on concentrates as they are a higher source of energy. But as we discussed in our sheep breeding post, sometimes overfeeding your sheep can have disastrous consequences for lambing season. On the flip side, a common issue in sheep farming is not providing enough calories for sheep to be healthy.
In extreme cases this can lead to severe weight loss and eventual death. Other hazards include “weak spots” in the wool that drastically reduce its value. A ewes’ inability to have multiple births or produce enough milk for her lambs. A restricted diet can also reduce the immune system of your sheep and make them susceptible to worms. Which of course can lead to an expensive vet visit.
As with everything, you will need to find that balance for your flock. Unfortunately, there is no magic bullet answer. This will depend on your breed of sheep, the age of your sheep, the climate and a host of other factors. You will need to regularly weigh your sheep to ensure that the average weight of the flock is healthy.
Protein
Like everyone, sheep need protein to build up their bodies. This is especially important when they are in production mode. Such as breeding season for males, lambing season for females and wool growth season for your herd. But it is your lactating ewes and lambs who will need the most protein in their diet.
Sheep are what are called ruminant animals. This means they regurgitate food from their stomachs in what is called crud. This is further chewed before being swallowed. This is important to know because most of the protein absorption happens in this process. Once the food is chewed, it makes it easier for enzymes in the gut to digest the plant matter and absorb protein.
The most common protein supplement for sheep is soybean meal. Other less common sources include sunflower meal, cottonseed meal, whole cottonseed, whole soybeans, peanut meal, canola (rapeseed) meal, fish meal, and alfalfa pellets. In the past a source of protein was crushed up animal matter (usually sheep bone). This was especially horrific when the sheep may have expired due to scrapie (a fatal neurogenerative disease).
Other animals consumed these proteins and it eventually transformed into what was called “mad cow disease”. This could infect humans if we ate contaminated meat and this became CJD. A fatal brain disease. So, as you can imagine, this practice is now illegal.
If you have large flocks, it can be a good idea to look into protein blocks. There are large hard protein blocks that sheep can consume as needed. They are however comparatively expensive and are really only worth it if you have large flocks or are better off investing time elsewhere. A typical block can be about €15.00. And if you need 50 of them to last you a week for a herd of about 300 strong, in a typical month you will need €3,000. Or in annual cost, €36,000.
Minerals
There are two types of minerals needed in all diets, macro and micro minerals.
The macro minerals are needed in large amounts and are typically the same across livestock such as cattle and pigs but vary in quantity. These include salt, calcium, phosphorous, magnesium, potassium and sulphur.
We will be looking at salt, calcium and phosphorous in more detail. Magnesium, potassium and sulphur should be present in enough quantities if you are using good quality pastureland.
Salt
There are any different types of salt, but we are going to look at sodium chloride (table salt). This is a very important mineral in your sheep because it helps make sure they can move properly. If your sheep do not have enough salt in their diet, they may not produce enough milk for lambs, reduce their food and water intake and fall into the explained dangers of being underweight. Signs of inadequate salt intake can be eating dirt or chewing wood.
When adding salt to your herd’s diet, it is usually accepted for it to be 1% of the overall weight of the concentrated feed. Salt can also be used as a food regulator. This is because the intense taste will make sheep retreat from the food block.
Calcium and Phosphorous
These minerals are important for the building and maintenance of your sheep’s skeleton. If they do not have enough, they can develop rickets. This can lead to skeleton malformations and be extremely uncomfortable for them and in extreme cases it can contribute to their death.
Your sheep will also need more calcium than phosphorous in a 2:1 ratio. If you are feeding your sheep forage feed, this should be more than adequate. However, in concentrate feeds, there is often more phosphorous than calcium and this can lead to urinary problems, especially with your rams.
Vitamins
Sheep need vitamin A, D and E. Vitamin A is not usually present in grassy material, so it needs to be sourced from other plants (think colourful) like carrots. Vitamin D is another vitamin needed to prevent rickets.
Vitamin E is for overall health, this is usually sourced in green feed. Generally speaking, if you are supplying good quality feed for your sheep, you shouldn’t need to supplement vitamins with your sheep herd.
Fibre
This is to add bulk to your sheep’s diet, and it has the added benefit of helping to maintaining the rumen of your sheep. The rumen is the different parts of the sheep’s body that help it digest plants.
Fibre promotes salivation and rumination in the gut (good bacteria). It is often advised to do 1 pound of roughage per head per day. Sheep who do not consume enough will be seen chewing on wood or even wool.
Water
Water is the basis of life and is absolutely vital for almost all living functions. To put it into perspective, a human could last maybe 2-3 weeks without eating adequate food. Whereas a human will die in 2-3 days if we do not drink water. The same principle applies to sheep. Yet this is often one of the more neglected aspects of feeding sheep.
A sheep can drink half a gallon to four gallons of water a day or just under 2 litres to 15 litres. This will depend on the specific environment that they are being raised in. Our sheep are lucky that we have a river that runs through a couple of fields so we have continuous fresh water.
Normally sheep will sate their thirst 2-3 times a day, sometimes more if they are on a higher salt diet. Lack of adequate water can lead to loss of milk production for lactating ewes and a greater susceptibility to worms in the herd.