Tracy Wessel
Sun, 02 Dec 2007 12:30:38 -0800
I had a sheep shearer give me about that much grain advice (2 percent) for Rambouillet. I admit that my woollies really did best with grain in their diet. They were dry-lotted, so had alfalfa and grain was it for 3 seasons per year in Southern CA. I think pasture changes that dynamic considerably and would not grain animals in the Spring/Early Summer if they had good pasture. I also would not consider offering that much grain to hair sheep. In particular the Blackbellies seem to fare well on grass hay. I've seen more issues from overly rich foods with them. Like I told you before, I have one ewe who gets chronic scours every Spring on fresh pasture. She'll have to be culled this year while I have her fat, because last year she was just poor looking. The vet felt it was more that she took a liking to a particular toxic plant (he suggested buttercups). She does well on hay, and on the farm in Amity she never had scours, so it is certainly a problem with a plant on this property in Boring. She's just now recovering from a short bout of scours after I opened up another pasture, which they have pretty much grazed down. On the other hand, we could all be wrong and it could be related to her heat cycle, or some other hormonal issue. I don't think she had scours while she was pregnant. Meanwhile, said sheep are standing in the barn - I remember how my woollies loved the cooling rain. These sheep are just weanies about the cold rain. Can't say I blame them. 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. > > Date: Sat, 1 Dec 2007 19:07:59 -0800 > From: "Barb Lee" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Subject: Re: [Blackbelly] The Nose Gets Fixed, Now the Mouth Don't > Work > To: <blackbelly@lists.blackbellysheep.info> > > > I've made up a worksheet for this ration balancing act - even got > through the calcium/phosphorus ratio! And it's just awful...If I were > to go "by the book" I'd be feeding these little monkeys over half a > pound of grain, about 2.25% of their body weight. _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info