Don't know, Cecil! We sure have lots of fat deer around here in our forested, brushy region. They look hundreds of times healthier than the deer around Mt. Shasta, CA.
I must be addicted to "aha!" moments. Just being able to observe some capacity for feed starts to unravel myths and mysteries about blackbelly sheep as a low maintenance animal. I can't decide whether it's a blessing or a curse for a grass-based operation. There's so much talk about "performance," weight gain, etc. in the sheep industry in general...it pays to know what the gains are based on in terms of feed and how that fits the breed you've selected for your program. On the one hand, it may make them thrifty to keep in a way, but if a person is aimed at making them a profitable lamb enterprise, it's going to take more skill to finish them for a high end market if their capacity for feed is small. It may be that a lamb that grows bigger and faster than the rest was simply born with a bigger rumen. Anyway, just idle chit-chat on a frosty morning. Congrats on your new lambs, and I hope the ice storm doesn't take you out! Barb ----- Original Message ----- From: "Cecil Bearden" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[email protected]> Sent: Sunday, December 09, 2007 9:57 AM Subject: Re: [Blackbelly] Feeding Trivia > Barb: > Just a thought: How do our blackbellies compare to deer? I am sure > there some figures on deer feed consumption somewhere, just finding > them. My opinion is that blackbellies forage much like deer, and > their > systems seem to resemble deer more than goats or wooled sheep. Deer > are > extremely thrifty. Perhaps the original Barbados sheep were > domesticated Barbados deer?? We have an ice storm here in OK right > now, and I am just waiting for the power to go out and prospective > buyers to call about generators. We have had 11 new ones born in the > last 5 days. One during the freezing rain/fog last night. I spent > yesterday afternoon putting hay in the shelters for them and came back > last night to find one new one nursing mama with about 15 head that > were > bedded down in the straw I put under a low shelter. I just left it > there did not want to disturb them. It was fine this morning. > > Cecil in OKla > > Barb Lee wrote: >> Now that I've got all smart (haha!) and learned how to balance >> rations, >> I've been making some interesting observations. The NRC charts for >> sheep nutritional requirements show that 44 pound lambs need a total >> Dry >> Matter (food after the water's been removed) intake of 2.2 pounds per >> day. That's about 2.45 pounds of hay. >> >> I have nine lambs that average 45 pounds, and they can't clean up >> about >> 1.5 pounds each of 3rd cutting leafy alfalfa per day. That's a pound >> a >> day less than a wooly lamb???? Wow. There's a little low quality >> grass >> in their yard, but I doubt it's contributing to their intake that >> much. >> Maybe this is where we are taking our description of the breed as >> "thrifty" from. It's a two-edged sword. If you're trying to get the >> best quality out of the lamb, you wouldn't be feeding as much to a >> blackbelly lamb as to a wooly, but you'd want to maximize the small >> intake with highest quality feed of the right kind. Wonder if this >> has >> anything to do with slow growing blackbellies? Makes sense that >> "industrialized" breeds are selected on feed lot tests, so they're >> probably selected in large part to be able to shovel in large >> quantities >> of feed. >> >> My ewe lamb mother, nursing twins is only able to consume about 60% >> of >> the chart recommendations. She's in her 4th week of lactation and >> hasn't lost a scrap of condition. Her lambs are beginning to help >> her >> eat her hay now so it looks like consumption will go up a bit in the >> next few weeks. >> >> Some cattle breeders are selecting bulls based on forage performance >> now >> for the grassfed market. Seems to me this presents a sort of >> back-door >> opportunity for blackbelly breeders...If we understand more about >> their >> digestion (after all their metabolism of fat is different from >> woolies, >> so it stands to reason their digestion is different.) we should be >> able >> to fashion our breed into an excellent breed for the burgeoning >> grassfed >> market. >> >> Regards, >> Barb Lee >> Blacklocust Farm >> Registered American Blackbelly Sheep >> http://www.blacklocustfarm.net >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list >> Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info >> >> > _______________________________________________ > This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list > Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info > > _______________________________________________ This message is from the Blackbelly mailing list Visit the list's homepage at %http://www.blackbellysheep.info
