Feeding my hair sheep

[promiseacres]

Ok. My flock of xbred hair sheep (painted desert, barbados, churro, ect) were getting free choice hay, a over grazed pasture and sheep/goat feed daily.

I have atleast 1 month of decent pasture for them so I am wanting to give them mainly have them eat the grass plus some minerals, and maybe some type of grain so they get used to me. I'll add grass hay when I pull them off the pasture, I rest my pastures Dec-Feb. Ewes are bred (or should be the ram's always been with them) unfortnatly no good due dates, though he did mount one today despite me being told that he was no longer acting like they were in heat. And 1 they thought might lamb as early as December. They all appear good condition to me and when my DH helped move them into the trailer he physically touched all o them and he said no one felt skinny in any way.

Do I need to get the sheep/goat feed or could I feed them corn (cracked) or some other grain since it's mostly treats? I don't want them to get fat. I'm not a fan of the feeds with so much molasses and JUNK. I know I should grain the girls after they lamb. I do plan on seperating them once they adjust to life here. So far they're not to sure about being herding pen to pen...but I didn't have help this morning so I left the other pen I wanted them to go into open with feed/hay inside (not sure they'll go as they're on grass now)

Any tips on feeding these types of sheep would be really appreciated!

 

[SheepGirl]

Not knowing when they were bred/when they are due makes it difficult to know when to start feeding them grain. (Normally you feed grain the last 30 or so days of pregnancy to give the extra nutrients to the ewe so her babies can grow.) However, being that they are in good condition you don't need to feed them anything other than grass or hay and minerals. Since you do want to feed them just so they get friendly, I would go ahead and feed them 1/4 to 1/2 lb of grain per day to split between all of them. I call my sheep in to eat with "c'mon, girls!" but lately all I need to do is open the back door and they meet me at the gate knowing I have food!

As to what type of grain to feed them--I like my 16% sheep feed I get at Southern States. It is a balanced feed designed to be fed with hay/grass and minerals. However you can feed straight corn (it's probably cheaper, too!) and the sheep will love it, but you do need to watch out for UC, especially with your ram. Straight grains (not balanced) will have high amounts of phosphorus and little calcium. So if you do feed corn you will need to add alfalfa pellets or alfalfa hay to make the calciumhosphorus ratio 2:1 (2x as much calcium as phosphorus). And yes you will have to do math to figure out how much alfalfa pellets to add to the corn!