[Jacob-list] Feeding Jacobs

[JACI SIEHL]

We've been going through this discussion as well.....not about woolbreaks but what is the nutritional need of our sheep.....most of the people (including vets) I talk to locally raise meat sheep so they look at it differently than those of us not trying to pack on muscle.  
   
  I always feed just once a day, in the evening.
   
  I used to feed alfalfa, but found my sheep got spoiled.  They would eat the leaves but refused to eat the stems.  They tossed the stems on the ground and that ended up as compost in my garden.  It got WAY to expensive.  I solved this problem by rationing.  If there were too many stems left, we gave them less new hay the next day (and since I am sure sheep can count, they noticed and complained).  This way they would end up eating most of the stems with very little waste.
   
  Last year I changed to grass (a pasture/blue grass mix or alfalfa/grass mix).  They get a little bit more in terms of quantity (which makes them happy).  With the grass hays they get about 3 lbs a day.  Even with this they seldom eat all the hay that they get each day so every few days they get a little bit less and clean up the scraps.  (It averages about 20 lbs a week per animal).  Although we don't have pasture for them, there is some grass growing around some of our trees that they snack on, as well as leaves and bark; but not enough to hardly count.
   
  They do not get grain as a rule, but do get COB as a treat once in awhile.  
   
  In our area of Northern California grass and alfalfa are about the same price ($13 - $15 for a 110 lb bale).  What cost me $600 to feed them last year will cost me about $1,000 this year - so I will be watching their intake even closer this year to make sure no one goes hungry, but making sure the feed isn't wasted.
   
  One person I spoke to said that the nutrition of a grass hay 2 - 5 years old is nearly that of fresh cut (maybe 5% less).  Anyone know if this is true?  I can get some of last year's hay (even their favorite one) for only $11/bale, but I don't want to throw my money out on feed that won't do them any good.  Any ideas?
   
  That's my 2 cents worth.  I hope to hear from others on this subject.
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://www.pairlist.net/pipermail/jacob-list/attachments/20080620/ec8ba95e/attachment.html>