[Jacob-list] grain, etc.

[Neal and Louise Grose]

Gosh, I'm glad nobody told my sheep they could get metabolic disorders from barley!

I have fed barley without any problem. It can be fed without grinding and is higher in protein than corn, which makes it easier to balance out with good quality hay. Corn will require a moderate amount of protein supplement (soybean or cottonseed meal) to make a balanced ration unless you are feeding alfalfa hay. 

Here in North Carolina, barley is considerably cheaper than corn and wheat...we don't usually produce beer types of barley. This should make it a good supplement for those of us here in the desert Southeast who are scrounging for hay.

Neal Grose

PS: First recordable precipitation in 2 months this week!!!!! We were 15 - 20 inches below normal for the year. It has rained 4.5 inches so far. It's too late for this year's crops, but I was becoming SERIOUSLY concerned about next! The price of small grain seed for this fall's planting is running two to three times what it cost last year, and a lot of it has sprouted and then died for lack of moisture.  

  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Betty Berlenbach 
  To: jacob-list at jacobsheep.com 
  Sent: Friday, October 26, 2007 4:19 PM
  Subject: [Jacob-list] grain, etc.


  I read early on in a sheep book that barley in pregnant sheep can cause metabolic disorders: probably talking about sensitive standardized breeds, but I have shied away from it because of that.  I use a premixed bag of corn, wheat, and soy beans, organic: they get about two tablespoons a piece now, and work up to maybe l/2 cup while lactating, for the first month, then reduced again, so that by June they are down to 2 T. again...candy, basically.  I have never flushed nor run them next to the rams before it's time for breeding groups. In twelve years, I think I've had three ewes each NOT breed once.  They are in for exactly 18 days and not a day longer, because i don't want lambing to last more than 3 weeks.  too intense, though that's just me: I check at 9 p.m., then go to bed until 6 a.m.  Have lost 3 lambs in last 11 years.  Works for me.
   Betty, in Vermont,who now has a blog, thanks to help from Walter and Linda.  See Betty's blog at http://sheepwoman.wordpress.com.


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