Sheep Management: feeding ewes, fodder supplies and organic feed

Feeding plans

This week’s sheep feature touches on feeding plans for late pregnancy feeding. It has been a tough week for stock with outwintered ewes bearing the brunt of the elements.

In the absence of supplementary feed and inadequate grass, ewes can rapidly lose weight in such conditions. While the forecast is for more favourable temperatures next week, the loss in ewe condition will remain significant in the absence of adequate feeding.

Access to a plentiful supply of moderate quality grass or access to ad lib silage of 67 DMD to 70 DMD will typically meet the nutritional demands of ewes in adequate condition in mid-pregnancy.

However it is likely that there is some questionable quality silage on farms given the challenging conditions for harvesting and this is where the big issues emerge.

In addition to poor-quality silage, supplying lower nutrition intake will be depressed and ewes will not physically be able to eat sufficient quantities to meet nutritional demands.

Take silage of 60 DMD and low dry matter. In such a scenario ewes will eat in the region of 0.6kg to 0.7kg DM (compared to 1kg to 1.1kg plus DM with good-quality silage).

At such poor quality, ewes will only consume about 50% to 60% of their daily nutritional requirements and experience weight loss of upwards of 1kg liveweight per week.

This will have longer-term negative consequences on mortality.

In such cases, ewes will need concentrate supplementation, particularly as ewes enter late pregnancy or access to alternative feeds such as feed buckets or molasses to fill the energy deficit. With sheep representing a much higher value, there is a positive payback from ensuring ewes are adequately fed and mortality is kept to a minimum.

Fodder supplies

Some farmers report stock consuming fodder at a faster rate than anticipated. It is worth keeping tabs on fodder as the greatest options to conserve fodder will be available the earlier issues are identified.

Housed ewes will consume in the region of 5kg silage freshweight daily or 1kg dry matter.

As a rule of thumb, one tonne of pit silage at 25% dry matter will suffice to feed 10 ewes for 25 days or 10 ewes will require 1.2t of such silage on average per month.

To calculate the tonnage of grass silage in a pit, multiply the length by breadth and height and divide by 45. A 4x4 round bale of silage weighing 650kg at 30% dry matter will feed 10 ewes for 20 days.

Organic feed options

While the cost of organic feed has reduced from the highs of recent years, concentrate feed costs remain well in excess of conventional feed. Costs can be minimised in mid-pregnancy by using options such as feeding straight oats or barley or sourcing feeds direct from tillage farmers.

Take note that any feed sourced must be organically certified and GM free. Soya bean meal can be fed, but again it must be organically certified.

Where purchasing organic concentrate feed it is important to check that high quality ingredients are included to ensure value for money.

Compound feeds will list ingredients in order of inclusion rates, but unfortunately there is no requirement to detail exact inclusion rates. Alarm bells should ring, however, where poor-quality feeds are at the top of the list.