Feeding of sheep

FEEDING OF SHEEP

  • Sheep can thrive on extremely wide variety of climatic conditions and utilize most adverse type of vegetations.
  • In India nearly 20% of the area is covered by forest which provides pasture for raising sheep.
  • However, during dry season the pastures cannot sustain production so that supplementation of concentrate mixture or legume fodder has to be provided.
  • When fed in stall, sheep consume 2.5 - 3.0 kg of DM/head/day from good quality roughages.

Grazing Sheep

  • They may consume 15% more dry matter on pasture than when fed in stall with the same feed. Sheep need comparatively greater proportion of protein because of wool fibres (composed of proteins).
  • The minerals like salt, Ca, P and Cu are dietary essential in adequate quantity to prevent any deficiency.
  • Normally lambs start to consume some supplemental feed at about 2 weeks of age.
  • After the rumen development, good quality leguminous green fodder or hays such as cowpea, lucerne, berseem, subabul etc may be made available to the lambs.
  • Early supplementation of solid food helps in the early development of the rumen.
Last modified: Friday, 23 March 2012, 5:36 PM