Tracy Wessel
Sat, 01 Dec 2007 12:40:05 -0800
Hi Barb, my flock, as well as the two lovely ewes I got from you that have settled in nicely, all fight for the beet pulp just as they would for grain. The Fell Ponies and the sheep both get hay and beet pulp twice a day. It is not traditionally what I have fed - used to feed alfalfa and COB in Southern CA, then here switched to East Oregon Grass or Timothy and Red Oat hay and a bit of COB. But here the sheep just kept diving into the horse feed, so now they just share, and love it. They have Timothy hay and the BP, plus pasture. The pasture is over grazed from the ponies, but the sheep have a warm weather feast of blackberries, which is of course their purpose for being here. Also, I used the distillers grains briefly in Southern CA when someone sharing the ranch for his cows brought some in. The cows looked pretty scrappy, and I can't say the sheep did particularly well on it either, though I had a mixed flock of woolies and hair sheep. I'm quite happy with the beet pulp. I soak the evening ration after feeding breakfast, and the breakfast ration after feeding supper. I soak it at probably 6-8 times the pellet volume of water. So basically four quarts of BP gets a full bucket of water. The soaking ability varies from bag to bag and in sub-freezing temps, I have to either soak in the house, or cook in a tin with an oat cooker (bucket heater). I feed it right on top of their hay. I can't say I'd expect wool sheep to fare well on this feed plan, but my Blackbellies look fine and lambed this year without incident. In the colder weather, I may add some oat hay or a small amount of COB, but really think they look good right now. I will say that historically I see a higher rate of twins/triplets when the sheep have been on grain (COB) over the Winter. As I'm not trying to build a huge flock, I'm happy with a lower rate of twins. Tracy Wessel Kylie's Shambhavi Rose, HSAs, STDsdc, JHD, CGC BasqueLaine Cat On The Scent, just a pup www.tracywessel.com/Savannah Jayanta, at the bridge, www.tracywessel.com/Jayanta Welsh Harlequin Ducks, Barbados Sheep, and various chickens that survived the skunk raid. > From: "Barb Lee" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: [Blackbelly] The Nose Gets Fixed, Now the Mouth Don't Work > To: <blackbelly@lists.blackbellysheep.info> > > Now all I have to do is convince them that BP is an > Edible Substance. > > Corn gluten meal and distiller's dry grains are non-starch energy > supplements. I just don't know how available they are. Guess I'll > have > to start checking the feed mills. > > Barb Lee > In snowy Western Oregon where the paper is predicting an actual > "Hurricane" type weather event on Monday. Yikes! > > _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info