How to Raise Sheep? A Detailed Guide to Breeding Techniques and Precautions

Sheep are a common domesticated animal. Sheep have very full bodies and very dense coats. But a sheep's head is very short. Because sheep meat is very tender and very tasty, it is deeply loved by gourmets and has become an indispensable delicacy on the table. In addition, sheepskin and wool can also be made into many things, so more and more people are now starting to raise sheep.

How to Raise Sheep

1. Sheep shearing methods. As for shearing frequency, fine-wool sheep, semi-fine-wool sheep and crossbred sheep producing homogeneous wool are generally shorn only once a year in spring; coarse-wool sheep and crossbred sheep producing heterogeneous wool can be shorn once each in spring and autumn.

2. Shearing time. The specific time for shearing depends on local climatic conditions. Spring shearing is mostly carried out when the climate warms and tends to stabilize. In the pastoral areas of northwest China, spring shearing is generally carried out from late May to early June; in the cold high-altitude pastoral areas of the Qinghai-Tibet region, from late June to early July; and in farming areas, from mid-April to early May. Autumn shearing is mostly carried out in September.

3. Preparation before shearing. For hand shearing, scissors, a whetstone, mats, a scale, iodine preparation, a record book, etc. should be prepared. If a shearing machine is used, technicians should first be trained and the machinery inspected to ensure wool quality.

4. Shearing should be chosen on a sunny morning. Stop grazing, feeding and watering 12h before shearing, so as to avoid soiling the wool with manure and urine during shearing or causing accidents such as gastrointestinal torsion when turning the sheep over due to a full belly. Before shearing, crowd the flock together so that the grease and sweat melt, making shearing easier. After rain, because the wool is damp, shearing should not be done immediately; otherwise the shorn wool is prone to mildew after being packaged.

Sheep Breeding Techniques and Precautions

1. Do a good job of storing forage and feed to ensure supply. At the same time, choose good forage processing and storage methods to ensure the quality of the forage and feed.

2. When feeding grass and feed, simple hay racks and feed troughs should be prepared to reduce forage waste and improve feed utilization. For feeding tuber and root succulent feeds such as carrots, potatoes and sugar beets, the mud and other impurities must be washed off and they must be chopped before feeding. Whether dry hay, silage or succulent feed, if moldy or spoiled, none of it may be used for feeding.

3. No matter which feeding method is adopted, concentrate and roughage should be fed at fixed times. If sheep are raised by grazing, they should be given supplementary feeding twice a day, morning and evening, that is, feeding dry hay before grazing in the morning, then feeding concentrate in the evening, and only then giving an appropriate amount of straw.

5. No matter which feeding method is adopted, sheep should be regularly given preventive vaccinations and deworming medication. After sheep are infected with digestive tract parasitic diseases, dysentery, emaciation and even death are especially likely to occur in spring. Therefore, in autumn and winter, scientifically reasonable feeding conditions should be provided for sheep to ensure they safely overwinter and pass through spring and grow healthily.

What Do Sheep Eat

1. For feeding tuber and root succulent feeds such as carrots, potatoes and sugar beets, the mud and other impurities must be washed off and they must be chopped before feeding. Sheep raised in pens are mainly fed legume green grasses in summer and autumn, such as alfalfa, hairy vetch and sweet clover, fed after chopping. Try to avoid feeding sheep leftover soup and rice to prevent indigestion.

2. Sheep have thin and flexible lips and sharp incisors, and can gnaw low-growing small grasses and roots. They eat many kinds of plants, accounting for about 88% of all forage plant species, and prefer legume and grass family forages. During the dry grass period, they will eat fallen leaves and weeds.

Is Raising Sheep Profitable

1. Sheep are now raised all over the world. They are both timid and docile, and easy to tame. At present, highly domesticated breeds are mostly in heat year-round, while local grazing breeds come into heat seasonally, mostly in autumn and winter. The gestation period of ewes is 145-152 days. Each litter produces 1-5 lambs.

2. Their lifespan is 10-15 years. Sheep are resistant to thirst and can provide humans with products such as meat and hides. Sheep meat is tender and very tasty. The places in China where the most sheep are raised are Inner Mongolia, Qinghai and other places. Sheep farming is also a breeding project with good returns.

Sheep have a very docile temperament and are easy for people to tame. Sheep wool has heat-insulating and cold-resistant effects, so ordinary sheep are very cold-tolerant and heat-tolerant. The most important point is that sheep must not be caught in the rain, because this makes them very prone to catching a cold. Have you remembered all of this?