After the introduction program leading up to a survival or maintenance ration, sheep should be fed at these intervals: dry sheep – twice weekly or weekly. ewes in late pregnancy or lambing – every second day. lactating ewes (after lambing has finished) – twice weekly.
Knowing the weight of your sheep and goats is a good guide to their dietary requirements for maintenance. Sheep will eat 2–3% of their bodyweight each day, although younger sheep or ewes with lambs can eat up to 4%.
Sheep will graze for an average of seven hours per day, mostly in the hours around dawn and in the late afternoon, near sunset. When supplements are fed to pastured sheep, it is best to feed them in the middle of the day so that normal grazing patterns are not disrupted.
Feeding Farm Sheep
Sheep make excellent use of high-quality roughage stored either as hay or low-moisture, grass-legume silage or occasionally chopped green feed. Good-quality hay or stored forage is a highly productive feed; poor-quality forage, no matter how much is available, is suitable only for maintenance.
Sheep can be fed on several different schedules, at the discretion of the shepherd. We used to feed twice a day in the early years, until I read a study that sheep fed only once daily were healthier than those who were fed twice.
(2008) and Nugroho (2012) who found that sheep eat only a small portion of feed at night. The time allocated for rest and rumination were found not significantly different.
As sheep are somewhat crepuscular, in my observation, they tend to eat in the morning, chew cud in the afternoon, and then eat again as evening falls. Unlike humans, sheep doze in small amounts throughout the day and night but don't engage in a lot of deep, long sleep.
Hay is usually a component of a diet for sheep and will need supplementing with grain or pellets.
Sheep love to graze pastures and will eat most any plant in them. This may include various grasses, legumes (like clover), and forbs.
For a 45 kg sheep and 12.2 M/D the feeding rate is 500g/hd/day of dry matter. All feeds contain some water. Hay and grain are typically 90% dry matter so to determine the quantity of the ration 'as fed', multiply the dry matter feeding rate by 100 and divide by the dry matter percentage.
A sheep will usually tell you if it is hungry!
Tame sheep who associate you with food will make a lot of noise whenever they see you, if you don't have enough grass on the field and they are standing around bleating and waiting for you you and not trying to graze, then they are hungry.
Sheep are grazing animals. They eat grasses and other low-growing vegetation and ruminate (chew the cud). They spend most of the day alternating between periods of grazing and resting/ruminating.
Grain overload is also known as acidosis or grain poisoning. It occurs when cattle, sheep or goats eat large amounts of grain, and can result in acidosis, slowing of the gut, dehydration and often death. Veterinary treatment is required for severe cases.
However, evidence with sheep is less clear; one study demonstrated feeding did have an effect (1): 65% of lambings occurring within 4 h before, and 8 h after feeding – therefore feeding in the morning was recommended.
Healthy sheep are eager to eat. They are almost always hungry. They will overeat, if we let them. Sheep bleat in anticipation of being fed and will rapidly approach the feeding area.
Some common garden plants, such as azaleas, chrysanthemums, acorns, buttercups, daffodils, holly and elderberry are poisonous for sheep to eat. Therefore, ensure they do not have access to garden areas, and when gardening ensure you don't throw garden waste into your paddocks, and that your paddocks are well fenced.
Many animals, such as cows, goats, sheep, rabbits, guinea pigs and geese, will enjoy eating the freshly cut grass clippings as well. If you're doing this, ensure the clippings are actually fresh and haven't been bagged up for a long time.
Sheep: Yes, if Fresh-Mowed or Fully Fermented
Similar to cattle, either feed fresh clippings or allow them to complete the fermentation process before offering small amounts to your sheep.
Alfalfa hay is an excellent feed for sheep and is best used during lactation when ewes require more protein to promote higher levels of milk production. Many producers have fed alfalfa hay to gestating ewes with good results.
Every winter we feed our goats and sheep by bale grazing in our pastures, by feeding round bales of hay outside directly on the ground.
Pasture is best (and cheapest)
But not all pasture is the same! Many hobby farms have poor quality pasture, for a variety of reasons. Sheep will generally do well on these poorer pastures if, and only if, you don't overstock (see below).
Re: how much hay do they need? On average each sheep will eat five small bales of hay over the winter (more this year with the early cold spell).
Adult sheep should be wormed 2-4 times a year, more frequently if you notice your flock is thin or if you are not using an effective rotational grazing plan. I recommend rotating Ivomec with Safeguard or Cydectin. A once-annual treatment with Valbazen for tapeworms is also a good idea.
Sheep tend to bed in groups together, sleeping tucked away in steep terrain where they will be safe from predators through the night. During the daylight hours sheep move downslope toward gentler terrain, where they spend hours alternately foraging and resting.
Dry licks are a practical way to provide nitrogen (e.g. urea) to sheep when they are protein deficient. They stimulate the sheep's appetite which can increase their intake of pasture by 20-30%; therefore, urea supplementation is only useful when sheep have access to a good body of dry feed.