At 07:38 PM 10/25/2009, you wrote: >I'm going to plant one of my fenced pens with alfalfa. In northern >California, it should grow like mad thru the winter and be 18" tall by >spring. I have a sickle mower and can harvest it, but was wondering >what the group's experience with grazing sheep on live alfalfa, under >controlled conditions. > >I could, for instance, give them, say, an hour a day on it. It will be >about 10 animals on 1/2 acre, so I doubt they could do much to eat the >plants to the ground in 1 hour a day, for instance. > >Our place is green with new grass already, and I have dry hay from the >summer to feed them as well, but right now, they are mostly eating >green grass and green ground-cover. > >I know alfalfa can be detrimental if they eat too much of it when it's >green. Looking to see if anyone has any experience with this.
The main problem with grazing a pure legume stand is bloat. Some ruminant raisers get around this with "ant-bloat drugs", and some don't seem to have a problem. I had the idea of filling a stock tank with water treated with plenty of Basic H, that should prevent bloat. But when grazing in the winter they probably won't drink from the tank much at all. If you can get some grass to grow(winter rye?) with the alfalfa, that should also prevent bloat. I envy you the winter grazing opportunity... last year we had 4ft of packed snow on the ground, and had enough trouble just putting hay out(let alone keeping the hay shelter standing!). I have no idea what will happen this winter! Julian _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
