wexcellent
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I have no idea what I'm doing. I've done some reading but decided I'd just post a new topic.
I have no background with farming but have jumped in with both feet. I've done pigs fairly successfully for several years and have chickens.
This year I decided to try some dorper lambs to raise for meat. I have limitted pasture. I volunteer for a food coop and always have tons of high quality whole grain bread available. This is really good, organic, high fiber/protein stuff (think $4.39 a loaf). I don't give my lambs any grain, but have been giving them about 1 loaf of bread a day. I can tell that the pasture is being used up more and more. One of the lambs, who I swear is possessed by a demon and has the most awful bleat you have ever heard, hardly made a sound when I opened up a new section of my yard, but now he's back to his obnoxious self so I'm assuming it means he doesn't have easy feed and is "hungry".
What should I do? I have a hay dealer friend who can probably hook me up with some quality hay so I'm assuming I should probably start supplementing that way.
Can I up their bread or is that just a bad idea and should I do grain instead? What if I just increased their bread - will they just become fatty? I really don't want to go too far down that road - I made that mistake once with my pigs.
How can I really tell if they are getting enough? I've read that if they are fatty they will have a soft lump above their tail - these do not. But they seem plump enough but then I don't really know what a plump sheep looks like.
Any help would be appreciated.
Steve
I have no background with farming but have jumped in with both feet. I've done pigs fairly successfully for several years and have chickens.
This year I decided to try some dorper lambs to raise for meat. I have limitted pasture. I volunteer for a food coop and always have tons of high quality whole grain bread available. This is really good, organic, high fiber/protein stuff (think $4.39 a loaf). I don't give my lambs any grain, but have been giving them about 1 loaf of bread a day. I can tell that the pasture is being used up more and more. One of the lambs, who I swear is possessed by a demon and has the most awful bleat you have ever heard, hardly made a sound when I opened up a new section of my yard, but now he's back to his obnoxious self so I'm assuming it means he doesn't have easy feed and is "hungry".
What should I do? I have a hay dealer friend who can probably hook me up with some quality hay so I'm assuming I should probably start supplementing that way.
Can I up their bread or is that just a bad idea and should I do grain instead? What if I just increased their bread - will they just become fatty? I really don't want to go too far down that road - I made that mistake once with my pigs.
How can I really tell if they are getting enough? I've read that if they are fatty they will have a soft lump above their tail - these do not. But they seem plump enough but then I don't really know what a plump sheep looks like.
Any help would be appreciated.
Steve