Feeding in Winter

[Bridgemoof]

Gearing up for the winter, a bit of chill in the air reminds me I have to plan for when there is no more grass to eat. Besides hay, what do you feed your sheep in the winter? Do you feed them grain, regularly, and if so, what kind of feeding troughs do you have set up? Also, do you have heated water troughs?

Last winter I gave my sheep grain, but there were only a few of them. This year I will have 25 sheep. They get a bit mobish when you come around with grain.

I guess I am referring to non-pregnant ewes or lambs.

I'd like to hear what others do. Thanks!

 

[bonbean01]

Besides hay, we gradually increase their sheep/lamb pellets that we buy from a local feed store that contains protein and vitamins and minerals. After pricing out all options we find they do very well on these. Pregnant ewes in their last month and then one month after lambing get fed more (gradually increasing...careful not to do this quickly as they love this stuff and will pig out if allowed)...always have salt blocks available to help themselves year round.

For feeding the pellets we made feeders from cutting large plastic plumbing pipes in half lenthwise and setting them on wooden ends. With that many sheep I would make several to cut down on the mobbing feeding and give plenty of room for all to eat at the same time. Of course there are a few who will run back and forth between them to see which feeder has more

Presently, the fifty pound bags of pellets have not gone up in price, but wonder when they will go up with this year's drought and crop failures.

 

[Bridgemoof]

Thanks BonBean! I love the idea of the pipes as troughs. Are they the corrugated type culvert pipes? Or pvc, or something different?

 

[bonbean01]

They are white pvc and they work well for us.

 

[Bridgemoof]

Cool beans BonBean!

 

[Cornish Heritage]

Besides hay, what do you feed your sheep in the winter?

We just continue to feed hay so their diet does not really change. Of course they eat more hay..... We continue to let them out to graze even if there is not much to glean. They would go stir crazy if we kept them shut in.

Liz

 

[NachoFarm]

Besides hay, what do you feed your sheep in the winter?

We just continue to feed hay so their diet does not really change. Of course they eat more hay..... We continue to let them out to graze even if there is not much to glean. They would go stir crazy if we kept them shut in.

Liz

NOT HIJACKING!

So...if you just continue feeding hay, do you mean that you don't feed any grain? At all? Ever? What about during the pregnancy and lambing and nursing? We don't feed any grain currently but after reading a book, it mentions the feeding of grain several times and seems to say that you can't get away without feeding it at some critical points. How do you manage these critical nutrition periods without grain? We'd like to continue not giving grain but I want to keep everyone healthy.

 

[Alice Acres]

Just adding in....

When we had our own hay from our hay fields, we had a real nice alfalfa, grass and touch of clover blend.
It was high enough in protein that we never had to give grain.
Now we buy hay, and it's just plain grass, nothing fancy. And normally pasture now - but the drought killed all that for the year.
So, for flushing, and then later in gestation and when nursing we will supplement with grain.

 

[BrownSheep]

We only feed grain to our show lambs. Everyone else is pasture from as early to as late a possible. With good alafalfa hay in the winter everyone gets by fine and actually get fat.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

For non pregnant sheep (including rams), I feed grass hay only. Pregnant ewes sometimes get grain the last month of gestation, but not always (sometimes they're too fat and don't need it). Sometimes I feed lactating ewes grain, but not always. I don't have a water heater. My de-icer is a shovel.