Fed for sheep

[freewheat]

I have been trying to find info on what
grains can be fed to flush ewes. I find
little info on wheat feeding for sheep. I
do have some oats, but could I use wheat
as well? Any limitations as to % of
ration, etc...???

Hope someone shows up on this slow forum..

[DogPatch]

Whichever grain you use, don't grind it. Whole works best. If I had my choice, I would choose barley myself. It has a better balance of fiber, energy and protein than the others. Oats, are high in fiber, lower in energy. Wheat is higher in protein, energy, but lower in fiber. Sheep don't need a hugh amount during flushing. They just need to be at a plane of nutrition higher than what they were at before. Like fall pasture-grass grazing, coming into a bit of barley and a little better hay.

[Smithy]

Great answer, Dogpatch. I feed mine 1/2 lb. of barley for 3-4 days, 3/4 lb for the next 3-4 days and then a lb. a day for the last week before breeding. I keep feeding about 1/2 lb. a day for the next week or so depending on how fat my ewes are. They get the grain on top of their normal ration of hay. I have finn cross ewes and my lambing rate is always over 2. (2.46 last year)

[freewheat]

Thanks guys! I have only wheat and oats,
maybe I will blend them a bit. I will not
roll it either. Reading these things in a
book is one thing; Hearing from real life
sheep guys is so much more comforting. I
will need to find some barley. Thanks.

[Smithy]

A blend of wheat and oats would probably work just fine. Like DogPatch said, the idea is just to increase their plane of nutrition a bit for a few weeks.

[kato]

Interesting. I gave mine oats, since that's what I have. I also bought a lick tub two weeks ago, which they're loving. A friend told me that keeping the minerals up is pretty important right now, and they pay a lot more attention to the tub than they did to their boring old sheep mineral.

The ram's been out for three days now, and as of yesterday he had three out of thirteen bred. I guess in the spring we'll see how well it worked. They're all ewe lambs, so I'm not expecting a lot of twinning, but my smallest one was bred yesterday, so that's looking good for the bigger ones. So far so good.

Now here's my question... With our cows, it's a routine procedure to give them all Vitamin AD shots in the winter. I've never seen anything written about sheep getting them. Should they be having an injection?

[Smithy]

I free feed a winter mineral mix with A, D & E in it and don't give them an injection. My ewes are out in the sunshine all day and have access to bush and trees that they do nibble on in the winter.

[kato]

I'm pretty sure there's vitamins in the lick tub. I'll have to check my minerals.

Thanks.

[freewheat]

Where do you folks get your mineral from?
I am using a small block from peavey mart
for sheep specifically.

[kato]

Local feed mill. It's made by Eastman Feeds in Manitoba. The lick is Feedrite.