GARLAND STAMPER
Thu, 15 May 2008 08:39:29 -0700
David, I'll read the article later, but wanted to let you know how we feed our sheep. We live in the high desert of central OR, by the way. One thing we do know is that our AB sheep do quite well on hay, water, free-choice minerals, free-choice baking soda and a salt block. We had our hay tested...that's a must so you know what you're starting point is. Our grass hay protein level is 11% which is great for the young rams. The lactating ewes, on the other hand get supplemented with alfalfa pellets (18%) and a Nutrena 4-way sweet feed which is 14%. The babies start nibbling on the sweetfeed and occasionally will bloat and froth, so you cannot give them too much. I had tried feeing cracked corn to that bunch...but it didn't work at all. Too many frothing babies running around til their rumens grew up a bit. We don't have any pasture, so everything our sheep eat...we have to buy. I believe our hair sheep are more goat-like, that is, they are brousers as well as grazers. They are a hardy breed of sheep and I just love them. Oh...we have 11 beautiful lambs now with one more ewe to go. I'm very pleased with this crop...they are all very nice. No lambing problems and no losses this time...as opposed to last summer when our lambing was a disaster. Way too hot here and we're not lambing in the summer ever again. Beth in OR _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info