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Introduction to Sheep Nutrition

What I want to talk about today then is from the standpoint of feeding sheep, a little bit different than some of the other animals we deal with. We’re dealing with meat, of course, so we deal with balancing rations for growth, from the standpoint of meat production. Likewise, when we get into production systems where they are actually milking sheep for milk production, not just for the lactation of the lamb, we take into consideration milk production. But the other factor that we have to deal with in sheep nutrition and balancing ewe rations is fiber production and in the case of sheep we are talking about wool. But then if we go with goats and I will mention a few things about goats here today but I am not going to spend very much time on goats. It is going to be primarily devoted to sheep. We have mohair from the Angora goat. And then, of course, cashmere from just the regular goats because all goats will produce some cashmere, it just depends on how intensely they have been selected for the amount that you get, but all goats will produce some cashmere. And the fiber thing is something that we need to pay attention to when formulating. We’ll talk specifically about wool production probably later on today or on Wednesday. And of course with sheep being a ruminant, we are concerned with the fact that they are ruminants and so we want to make maximum utilization of pasture, range, forages, whatever it might be and make that a major portion of our feeding program. And of course one of the unique things about sheep is the fact that we can produce an acceptable product, that is a meat product, on forage alone. We can get lambs to suitable, consumer acceptable quality grade on forages alone. We do not need to use grains to finish them off so as to get them to grade, as an acceptable quality grade, from the standpoint of consumer acceptability. I think that is something somewhat unique when it comes to sheep feeding, also, is that we can utilize solely forages, range, things like that and get a marketable product.

What are the nutrient needs? Well, I am not going to be presenting anything new and unique from what you have covered in other species, but I want to just kind of run through some of the specifics and we will spend some time. We will talk a little bit about water. We will talk then, next, we will move onto to specifics as it relates to energy from the standpoint of TDN or ME or NE, whatever it might be. Then, we will talk about protein, crude protein, digestible protein. We will talk about some specifics as they relate to minerals, salts, calcium, phosphorus, micro and macros. And then we will talk about vitamins as it relates to sheep, the fat soluble, as well as the B-complex.

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