Author Topic: What are you doing with your sheep? (Read 16640 times)

piggy · « **Reply #15 on:** November 24, 2010, 08:56:58 pm »

yes we feed sugar beet pulp without soaking.

waterhouse · « **Reply #16 on:** November 25, 2010, 12:01:06 am »

Quote from: piggy on November 24, 2010, 08:56:58 pm

yes we feed sugar beet pulp without soaking.

I'm really surprised by this since I looked up several manufacturers of the product - flakes, shreds or pellets - who all say it needs to be soaked, indeed that it can absorb nearly five times its own weight in water. If the stuff expands inside the gut this can't surely be good? When my dog got into a bag of dry food he was very uncomfortable for several days with a distended stomach: vet said nature had to take its course.

I'm sticking to soaking it. Speedibeet takes 10mins while the conventional is 24 hours.

piggy · « **Reply #17 on:** November 25, 2010, 09:08:22 am »

I soak it for the horses but not sheep as i have been told by sereval people that it dosent need to for sheep.

lachlanandmarcus · « **Reply #18 on:** November 25, 2010, 01:21:03 pm »

Ive also heard that, not sure why different but I heard it is. Altho not everyone has water out as they should for sheep and if no ad lib un frozen water it shouldnt even be considered.

I wouldnt feed it unsoaked either but mainly cos I have horses too so have that approach to sugar beet.

ballingall · « **Reply #19 on:** November 25, 2010, 03:16:09 pm »

You can feed it unsoaked to sheep or goats, but you do need to be careful to only feed a small amount! As obviously it does expand. We normally soak it for the goats, but have on occasion fed a tiny bit dry.

Beth

shetlandpaul · « **Reply #20 on:** November 25, 2010, 04:07:33 pm »

after re catching him again. we put him in the byre he smashed down an internal stone wall smashed through the door and did a runner into the open moor after jumping half a dozen fences. so if we do catch him he will be getting the final chop.

kanisha · « **Reply #21 on:** November 25, 2010, 04:09:38 pm »

lachlanandmarcus · « **Reply #22 on:** November 25, 2010, 04:49:02 pm »

Theres going to be a lot of coloured shetland crosses out there this spring

I feel for you, animals getting out into neighbours stock must be a nightmare. Mind you when I had my two Shetland cows I was always very tempted to whoops they escaped with our neighbours prize Aberdeen angus breeding bulls which sell in some cases for five figures....

andywalt · « **Reply #23 on:** November 25, 2010, 06:30:41 pm »

Shetland Paul, must be a nightmare for you, but very entertaining for us, Ive been reading it out to my wife and kids and had shreks of laughter and amazments, let us know if you get him back? he is obviously a shetland Ram? didnt realise they are so aggressive? I have a few but they are x City farm so very humanised...

shetlandpaul · « **Reply #24 on:** November 25, 2010, 09:17:39 pm »

he was such a sweet boy. but now he is just a randy little sheep. funny its only now that folks tell us that its normal for shetland rams. i think we need a diffrent breed one with out springs in there feet. poor abi spent most of the day doing cross country and she was wondering why her leg hurt her. the wall was a thick 2-3 thick drystone/morter one so he really did not want to be in. our pigs moved into the byre today for there last week or so. thought they were going to be mud balls. however they were spotless. serious deep mud. the son was moving a broken pallet out of there run andhe sank up to his knees. we were laughing at him until it turned out he had borrowed my boots.

OhLaLa · « **Reply #25 on:** November 26, 2010, 11:29:20 am »

I wouldnt advise sugar beet be fed dry as everyones idea of 'just a bit' differs. It more than doubles in size when soaked and the standard pellet version is best soaked overnight. There is a version which needs less soaking but I've never tried it. either way, I'd always soak.

PS: Re sheep pellets - when you guys say feeding 'just a bit', how much (per animal)? I'm bit unsure what quantity to feed and nothing on my bag (cos I've ripped it).

Ta.

Fleecewife · « **Reply #26 on:** November 26, 2010, 11:46:30 am »

The amount of concentrates you feed depends utterly on factors such as the breed you keep, what other feed they are getting, the stage of gestation of ewes, the type of concentrate and so on. For my primitive breeds, on hill land, a small acreage, frozen ground, with ad lib hay and licky buskets, and running with the tups, we give them about a couple of ounces per head of Tup & Lamb coarse mix per day. Because of where we are, we will continue at about that level until 6 weeks before they are due to start lambing, but doubling the amount if there is deep snow lying for more than a day. By lambing time, we will be giving them 4 ounces twice a day, maybe more depending on how they look.
For bigger non-primitive breeds, that amount will be much greater, but others can tell you how much. Also, some people will be using ewe pencils, which can be bought in two different protein values, for in-lamb and non breeding animals (I think 18% and 14% respectively). We don't use pencils just because the coarse mix looks so much more appetising

So the best thing for your particular sheep is to enquire from your breed society, or the manufacturers of the feed.
Another way of judging how much to give is empirically - in other words, you observe carefully how effective what they are getting is. If they appear to be in good condition and are not ravenously hungry, or getting thin, but eat all you put down within 5 or ten minutes, then you have got it about right. Sheep are not likely to overeat if they have all they need in front of them. If all they had was concentrates then they would probably eat too much, but as long as they have hay to 'fill their bellies' and plenty of water in addition to licky buckets and the concentrates they will be fine.

OhLaLa · « **Reply #27 on:** November 26, 2010, 12:05:55 pm »

Thanks for the info.

They are too young to be put into lamb, no snow here, longish grass and about to be put into new field they've never had access to before. They have their sheep mineral lick in their shelter but no other 'licky' (?).

So much other feed to fit into the feed bin I made the error of ripping the bag down to squeeze it in so all info gone.

As I understand it, no need to feed hay unless grass under snow? Although nutrition content low at the moment, we have plenty of grass.

I'd rather appear dumb and ask than get it wrong.......

lachlanandmarcus · « **Reply #28 on:** November 26, 2010, 05:05:55 pm »

Long grass is fine and substitutes for hay, neither has much goodness but lots of good work in keeping tummies warm and working and sheepies snug and warm.

Watch out about losing the label on the feed sack, when animal health do an inspection (we got one day notice) they pay very close attention to matters like sack labels/batch nos being present, as well as feed storage, so worth hanging onto the label.

My Shetlands get a small clenched handful of ewe nuts/whole wheat each, really just a treat, even the ones in with the ram. Other than that they just have ad lib hay and mineral lick and water. I up the food to one small scoop of nuts 6 weeks before lambing. To date I havent had any lambing issues at all based on this and the (pure) shetlands have had
2009 5 ewes 8 lambs
2010 4 ewes 6 lambs
have 15 lambing this year tho!