Key Technical Points and Feeding Management Methods for Meat Sheep Farming Explained

1. Moderate-scale meat sheep farming     

Like any other industry, sheep farming should also pursue economies of scale. The moderate scale of meat goat farming is determined by many factors such as the farmer's investment capacity, market prices, pasture area, feeding and management conditions, and the ratio of males to females. Under natural mating conditions for goats, the ratio of breeding rams to breeding ewes is generally 1:25, and the moderate scale should be 40 to 50 head.

2. Reasonable grouping and feeding in meat sheep farming     

Apart from breeding and producing breeding sheep, the traditional method of meat sheep production is self-breeding and self-raising. Since the production purposes of breeding sheep and lambs differ, breeding sheep and weaned lambs should be raised in separate groups or by separate households. The feeding and management of breeding sheep groups is more extensive than that of lambs; the focus is on maintaining breeding body condition, timely mating, preventing missed mating and abortion, and providing sufficient nutrition during the mating and gestation periods; while the focus of lamb feeding and management is providing nutrient-rich forage and feed throughout, and paying attention to cold protection, warmth, and disease prevention.     

3. Building raised-floor sheep housing for meat sheep farming     

Raised-floor sheep housing has the advantages of being dry, well-ventilated, and easy to clean manure from, and has already been widely promoted and applied in the Jiangnan region, where there is abundant rain and high humidity. However, attention should be paid to cold protection and warmth in raised-floor sheep housing in winter, so as not to affect the growth and development of lambs and cause a large loss of body condition in meat sheep.     

4. Planting high-quality forage grass for meat sheep farming     

Forage grass is the main food of goats. Providing goats with nutrient-rich, highly palatable, high-quality forage grass is the key to high-quality and efficient goat farming. Sheep farmers in our city can use mountain bend fields, winter fallow fields, hillside land, and economic forests for rotational planting or interplanting of high-quality, high-yield forage grasses such as ryegrass, forage corn, and king grass, plus other agricultural by-products such as soybean straw, peanut vines, and sweet potato vines, which can basically solve the source of green feed for sheep throughout the year, thereby reducing feeding costs and increasing sheep farming benefits.     

5. House-fed fattening of lambs     

The goal of lamb fattening is to increase daily weight gain and feed utilization rate. Traditional grazing fattening causes lambs to expend a large amount of physical energy, leading to reduced feed utilization rate, lower daily weight gain, and a longer fattening period, resulting in increased farming costs. Therefore, advocating house-fed fattening of lambs is one of the important measures for efficient goat farming. House-fed fattening should be carried out on the premise of ensuring sufficient green feed or hay, with supplementation of minerals and concentrate. Farmers can purchase goat mineral lick blocks and hang them in the pen for sheep to lick freely. Concentrate can be self-formulated using raw materials such as corn and soybean cake. House-fed fattening of goats shortens the fattening period by 1 to 2 months compared with grazing fattening.     

6. Marketing meat sheep at suitable body weight     

The suitable body weight for marketing meat goats should be comprehensively assessed based on production performance indicators such as daily weight gain, feed utilization rate, and dressing percentage, as well as market demand. If the marketing body weight is too low, the goat's growth potential is not fully realized, and meat yield is also low; if the marketing body weight is too high, although meat yield increases, the feed utilization rate declines. The suitable marketing age for goats of different breeds or crossbred combinations is generally 6 to 8 months.   

I. Emphasis on breed selection in meat sheep farming     House-fed sheep farming should be combined with local production realities, selecting breeds that adapt to local climate and ecological conditions, have high production performance, good product quality, a short feeding cycle, and high economic benefits. Sheep such as Small-tailed Han sheep, and goats such as Boer goat crossbred sheep, are all suitable for house feeding and achieve good results.    

II. Building sheep flock pens well

House-fed sheep farming requires well-built pens and fairly sufficient activity space. The pens should be able to prevent heat in summer and avoid cold in winter. The site should be chosen in a place with high, dry terrain, ventilation and sunlight, good wind protection, and convenient drainage. For the convenience of epidemic prevention, it is best to be more than 500 meters away from roads and villages.     Sheep housing is mostly of brick-and-wood structure, facing south, with a rectangular layout. In winter, a plastic warm shed can be set up to facilitate heat preservation, and attention should be paid to leaving vent holes on the roof to prevent foul air and excessive humidity inside the shed. In front of the sheep house, there should be an exercise yard, with an area 3 to 4 times that of the sheep house. Fixed or movable feed troughs should be placed around and in the middle of the exercise yard. Fixed feed troughs are built with cement or bricks, and the inside of the trough should be wider at the top and narrower at the bottom, with a rounded bottom; movable feed troughs can be made of wood. In addition, fixed water troughs or water basins should also be placed in the middle of the exercise yard for sheep to drink.    

The area of the sheep house is determined according to the number of sheep raised. Usually, the average floor area per sheep is 0.8 to 1.2 square meters. Breeding sheep should occupy a larger area, while growing sheep and lambs should occupy a smaller area; sheep should have a larger area, and goats a smaller area. The height of the sheep house is generally 2.5 meters, the width of the door is not less than 1.6 meters, and the height of the windows from the ground is not less than 1.5 meters, so as to ensure good lighting and ventilation. Doors and windows are best made of wood. The span is preferably 7 to 8 meters. According to fire safety requirements, the length of each sheep house should not exceed 30 meters.   

III. Strengthening feeding and management   

Ensuring feed supply    

House-fed sheep farming must ensure sufficient forage and feed so as to provide a balanced feed supply throughout the year. Feed is divided into roughage and concentrate, with forage feeding as the main part. Roughage mainly includes various green and dry forage grasses, crop straws, and succulent root feeds, etc. Sheep like to eat a variety of forage grasses; if they are often fed only a few kinds, it will cause anorexia in sheep, thereby reducing feed intake, slowing weight gain, and affecting growth. Therefore, attention should be paid to increasing the variety of forage grasses and raising the appetite of meat sheep as much as possible. During house feeding, a certain amount of concentrate must also be supplemented. Concentrate is mainly composed of soybean meal and corn, with appropriate addition of multivitamins and minerals. Among the minerals, iron, zinc, selenium, and copper are the main ones, and other minerals should also be added appropriately according to the deficiency of trace elements in the local soil. To reduce feed costs, some non-protein nitrogen such as urea can be added to the diet as a supply of protein feed source, generally at a daily addition amount of 8 to 10 grams.    

Sheep farmers can store forage and feed well according to the actual scale of sheep farming. Where conditions permit, they can use feed plots to plant forage grass and silage corn; they can also purchase corn stalks with ears during the dough stage of corn for silage, thereby reducing forage costs.     The consumption of forage and feed, the planting (purchasing) area of silage corn, the volume of the silage pit, and the amount of silage can be calculated by the following methods: the average daily consumption of roughage by one adult ram or ewe is 3 kg, and the annual consumption of roughage is 1 ton. The average daily consumption of concentrate is 0.25 kg, and the annual consumption of concentrate is 90 kg. Growing sheep and lambs are calculated at 75% and 25% of adult sheep respectively.