What Sheep Eat

Grass, clover, and forbs
Mostly sheep eat grass, clover, forbs, and other pasture plants. They especially love forbs. It is usually their first choice of food in a pasture. A forb is a broad-leaf plant other than grass. It is a flowering plant. Forbs are often very nutritious. As compared to cattle, sheep eat a greater variety of plants and select a more nutritious diet, but less so than goats.


Grazing time
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, it is best to feed them in the middle of the day so that normal grazing patterns are not disrupted.


Different plants
Sheep in different geographic areas eat different plants. Tropical forages are usually not as nutritious as those that grow in temperate climates. Protein is often the most limiting nutrient in forages. All forages are more nutritious if they are eaten in a vegetative state.


Pasture (land) requirements
The amount of pasture or range land that it takes to feed a sheep depends upon the quality of the land (soil), the amount and distribution of rainfall, and the management of the pasture.

In dry climates, an acre (or hectare) of pasture or rangeland cannot feed as many sheep as an acre of pasture in a moist climate. An acre of pasture in the wet season (spring and fall) can support more sheep than an acre in the dry season (usually summer)

Reproductive rates and lamb growth rates are lower in arid climates than high-rainfall areas that grow more plentiful forage. As a result, wool production tends to be of greater importance in arid and semi-arid environments, as it takes less nutrition to grow good quality wool than to produce milk and raise lambs. A farmer may be able to graze ten sheep on one acre of improved pasture in Maryland, whereas one sheep could require ten acres of native range in West Texas.


Stored feed
When fresh forage is not available, sheep are usually fed stored or harvested feeds: hay, silage, green chop, or crop by-products. Hay is grass that has been mowed (cut) and cured (dried) for use as livestock feed.

Silage (short for ensilage) or haylage is green forage that has been fermented and stored in a silo or other system that keeps air out. Moldy silage can cause listeriosis in sheep. The pieces should be chopped smaller for sheep as compared to cattle.

Sometimes, pasture plants are cut, chopped, and brought to the sheep. Fresh harvested forage is called green chop. This "cut-and-carry" system of feeding is common in developing countries, where labor is not a limiting factor.


Supplementation
Grain is often fed to sheep with higher nutritional needs, such as pregnant ewes during late gestation, ewes nursing two or more lambs, and lambs with the genetic potential for rapid growth. Grain is the seed part of cereal crops such as corn, barley, wheat, and oats. Grain is not "unnatural" for sheep. They have always eaten the seeds of plants.

A protein source, such as soybean meal or cottonseed meal is usually added to the grain ration, along with vitamins and minerals to make a 100 percent nutritionally-balanced feed. Unbalanced grain rations can lead to a variety of health concerns.

Sheep love the taste of grain and can experience digestive problems if they eat too much grain too fast. Grain consumption needs to be regulated, introduced slowly and gradually increased in the diet.

Ruminants, such as sheep, should always have some roughage (fibrous feed) in their diets. at least a pound per day for sheep. Producers in many parts of the world cannot afford to feed grain to their livestock. Whereas in some parts of the U.S. and in some years, grain is a more economical source of nutrients that forage.

By-products
By-products from crop production and food processing can also be fed to sheep. This is another advantage of ruminant livestock: they can be fed products that would otherwise go to waste and/or require costly disposal. Examples of by-product feeds include soybean hulls, peanut hulls, corn gluten feed, wheat middlings, and whole cottonseed.

With more corn being used in the production of ethanol, distiller's grains are becoming a more popular (and more economcal) feedstuff for sheep and other livestock. Distiller's grains are the solids left after ethanol is made. They are also a by-product of the brewing industry. Distiller's grains can be fed wet or dry, but are usually fed dry. Distiller's grains can contain high levels of phosphorus and sulfur, so their inclusion in sheep and lamb diets is usually limited.

A healthy diet for rabbits

Rabbits need:

Fresh clean drinking water continuously, checked twice daily. Ensure water doesn’t freeze in winter. Without water rabbits become seriously ill.

Good quality hay and/or grass, always available, should constitute the majority of rabbits' diets.
- Rabbits graze, naturally eating grass/other plants for long periods, mainly at dawn and dusk.
- Rabbits’ digestive systems need grass and/or hay to function properly.
- Read meal planner and feeding tips.

Hay and/or grass as they’re much more important than commercial rabbit pellets ('nuggets').
- If giving pellets, follow manufacturer’s instructions.
- Don’t top the bowl up as rabbits might stop eating enough hay and/or grass.
- Growing/pregnant/nursing/underweight rabbits may need larger portions.

Healthy diets. Avoid muesli-style foods as they are associated with health problems. See muesli is unhealthy for rabbits for advice on transferring rabbits to healthier diets. Contact your vet for dietary advice.
- Rabbits' teeth grow continuously, needing wearing down and keeping at the correct length/shape by eating grass/hay/leafy green plants.
- Not eating the right diet results in serious dental disease.

Root vegetables (e.g. carrots) or fruit only in small amounts as treats. Don’t feed other treats as they may harm your rabbits.
- Rabbits don’t naturally eat cereals/root vegetables/fruit.

Safe, washed leafy green vegetables/herbs/weeds daily. Take care – some plants are poisonous.
- Avoid sudden changes in diets and do not feed lawnmower clippings as both these upset rabbits’ digestive systems causing illness.

Feeding quantities adjusted to prevent them from becoming underweight/overweight.
- Quantities rabbits need to eat depend on age/lifestyle/general health.
- Rabbits become overweight and may suffer if eating more food than needed.

The amount they eat and drink monitoring. If these habits change, droppings gets less/stop, or soft droppings stick to their back end, talk to your vet immediately as they could be seriously ill.
- Rabbits produce two dropping types – hard dry pellets, and softer moist pellets they eat directly from their bottom and are dietary essentials.

How to Freeze Summer Vegetables

At this point in the season the farmers market tables are a riot of color, piled precariously with mountains of perfect produce – succulent heirloom tomatoes in their misfit beauty, corn fit to burst at the touch, luminous summer squash lined up in flirty nonchalance. But you know what will happen. The abundance will slowly dwindle as the apples start taking over, and all of a sudden, it’s roots and kale until spring.

With the canning revival in full swing, sterilized jars and water baths are covering the counters of many a kitchen. But if you shy away from canning or have ample freezer space to supplement the pantry, freezing produce is an excellent way to preserve the local harvest for the bleaker months. Although frozen vegetables have taken a bad rap in the past, I’d take frozen produce in a heartbeat over old produce, commercially canned products, or produce imported from afar. Nutrients aren’t lost, and if frozen properly, neither is texture nor flavor.

The Basics

Use the freshest produce you can find, and freeze it as soon as you can—the quicker the better. Make sure to avoid the 12 most toxic fruits and vegetables.

Wash and dry everything thoroughly. Remove pits and cut into uniform sized pieces.

Use containers, freezer bags or a vacuum seal system—and remember to leave headroom for expansion.

If you are watching your use of plastic, the ever-popular Ball makes freezer safe glass jars—yay! Label with contents and date.

Blanching

Although freezing slows enzyme action, it doesn’t completely stop it – therefore, most produce requires some method of heat treatment, generally blanching, to inactivate the ripening enzymes and to preserve color, texture, and flavor. To blanch vegetables, place the washed, prepared vegetables in a pot of boiling water. Roughly use a gallon of water per pound of prepped vegetables. Boil water, and time the blanching as soon as the water returns to a boil after submerging the produce. After the recommended time has elapsed, remove the vegetables and plunge them into very cold (you can add ice) water for the same amount of time that you blanched them for.

Most frozen produce should be good stored for nine to 12 months. These are the basic methods for summer’s most popular produce.

Friesian Dairy Cow

Friesian Cow is best known for its outstanding milk producing capacity. These Friesian Cows are healthy and have long-life.

Some Interesting Facts :

Originated in the Netherlands
Quickly recognized by their distinctive black and white color markings
Outstanding milk production
Color Patterns can be either of black and white or red and white.
A healthy Friesian calf weighs 40 Kg or more at birth
A mature Friesian cow weighs about 700 Kg and stand 150 cm tall at the shoulder
Friesian heifers can be bred at 15 months of age, when they weigh about 360 Kg.
It is desirable to have Friesian females calve for the first time between 24 and 27 months of age. While some cows may live considerably longer, the normal productive life of a Friesian cow is six years.

Milk Production Capacity : The average milk production for a Friesian cow is 7800 Kg of milk per lactation

How to Tattoo Your Goats for Easy Identification

No matter whether you're keeping goats because they contribute to a sustainable lifestyle or as a 4-H project for your kids, you'll need to mark them for easy identification. Tattooing your goats is relatively inexpensive. Basic equipment for tattooing costs less than $100 and only a few dollars a year after that.

Microchipping is also an option. Tattooing, although slightly more painful for the goat, doesn’t come with many medical risks; microchipping, on the other hand, has been known to cause tumors.

If you plan to register goats, you need to check with the registry you will use to find out what method they allow and what tattoo sequence (letters and numbers) you need to use.

Supplies for tattooing include gloves to protect your hands from ink, a pair of tattoo tongs, special tattoo ink, and letters and numbers to use in the tongs. You can use black ink on light-colored goats, but green shows up better on dark-skinned goats.

Secure the sequence of letters and numbers you will use in the tattoo tongs.

Squeeze them on a piece of paper to ensure that they are in the right order.

Put on your gloves.

Clean the inside of the goat’s ear or tail web (the loose, hairless area under the tail on either side of the anus) with alcohol, making sure that you have the correct ear for the tattoo you are using.

LaMancha goats’ ears are too small for tattooing, so you need to use the tail web.

When the ear is dry, rub tattoo ink on the inside of the ear or on the tail web.

Hold the ear out and position the tattoo tongs over the inside, being careful to avoid the veins to minimize bleeding.

To tattoo the tail web, position the tongs with the prongs facing the hairless side of the tail.

Puncture the ear or tail web firmly with the tattoo tongs one time, then release.

The goat will try to pull away, so make sure to hold securely.

Apply more tattoo ink and rub it in with your finger or a toothbrush to ensure that it fills the puncture.

Change the tattoo digits to the sequence you will use for the second ear and repeat Steps 3 through 7.

Supplemental Feed for Your Goats

Goats need supplemental minerals, vitamins, and other nutrients in addition to those they get in their hay, grain, and browse. Vitamins and minerals are essential to keeping goats healthy, making sure they're growing well, and assisting in reproduction and the development of skin and bone.

You can supplement your goats' browse and feed them essential minerals and vitamins by supplying them with free-choice loose minerals or a mineral block, which you can find in most feed stores. Goats prefer minerals with salt; if you have to get a salt-free mineral, supplement it with a salt block.

Never buy a so-called "goat/sheep mineral" because it doesn't have enough copper for a goat's needs. The amount of copper that a goat needs can kill a sheep. If you can't find goat-specific minerals, you can use a cattle or horse mineral.

With good hay and an adequate mineral block, your goats get by just fine. But you can also give them some of these supplemental feeds to make them even healthier:

Beet pulp: Beet pulp adds fiber, protein, and energy to a goat's diet and contains calcium and phosphorus. It comes in 50-pound bags and is cheaper than grain but doesn't supply as much energy and so shouldn't be used as a substitute.

Black oil sunflower seeds (BOSS): Black oil sunflower seeds contain vitamin E, zinc, iron, and selenium and also add fiber and fat to the diet. BOSS make the goats' coats shinier and increase the butterfat in their milk. Mix the seeds into your goats' grain; they eat them shell and all.

Kelp meal: Kelp meal is a good source of iodine, selenium, and other minerals. Used as a supplement, it helps protect goats from iodine deficiency. Kelp also improves dairy goats' production, increasing milk volume and butterfat and helping decrease mastitis.

Baking soda: Many goat owners offer their goats free-choice baking soda, which aids digestion by keeping the rumen pH-balanced. If one of your goats has a digestive problem, offer baking soda. Baking soda is also one of the treatments for floppy kid syndrome.

Apple cider vinegar (ACV): Some goat owners add unfiltered apple cider vinegar, which is full of enzymes, minerals, and vitamins, to their goats' water.

Treats and snacks: Just because goats love grain doesn't mean it's good for them to have all the time. You can find plenty of other nutritious snacks for goats:

*Corn chips are a good grain substitute for wethers because the saltiness encourages them to drink water, which helps prevent urinary calculi.

*Goats love apples, watermelon, peaches, pears, grapes, bananas (peel and all, if organic), and dried fruit. Just make sure that the fruits aren't in pieces large enough to cause choking.

*Vegetables are a nutritious addition to any diet. Goats love carrots with their tops attached, celery, pumpkins, squash, lettuce, spinach, and other greens.

Avoid members of the nightshade family, such as potatoes and tomatoes, which contain alkaloids, as well as plants with oxalates, such as kale. These can be poisonous to goats.

Belgian Fawn Goat

Created in Belgium, the Belgian Fawn descended from another breed called the Chamois Colored goat from Switzerland. It is also related to Oberhasli goat found in the United States.

These goats are horned, black or brown in color with a black skin. Adult males weigh on average 65 kg and females 60 kg with an average wither height of 81 cm and 71 cm respectively.