How to Raise High-Leg Sheep? These Three Key Technical Points Make It Easy
The high-leg sheep is a common breed of goat that can produce two litters a year. High-leg sheep have the characteristics of strong adaptability, tolerance of coarse feed, and high feed conversion rate; their meat is very delicious and has extremely high nutritional value. So how do you raise high-leg sheep? Let's take a look.
1. A Suitable Living Environment
How should farmers consider the siting of the sheep shed? When choosing a sheep farm site and building sheep sheds, a plan needs to be made according to the existing number of sheep, the scale of development, the financial situation, the degree of mechanization, and so on. At the same time, local conditions should also be fully taken into account to reduce production costs. Sheep sheds should be built in a place with relatively high terrain, good drainage, ventilation and dryness, sunlight exposure, and abundant water sources. As for building elevated (loft-style) sheep sheds, the shed is generally 4-6 m wide and 2-3 m high, with the length determined by the number of sheep raised; the shed area is calculated at 1.2-1.5 sq m per adult sheep, and an exercise yard should be built beside the shed, with trees planted around it for shade.
The floor boards are made of wooden strips, bamboo strips, or thin wooden sticks nailed into a bed surface with a spacing of 1-1.5 cm, so that manure and urine fall to the ground. The sheep bed can be divided into separate pens, or made into movable board surfaces. The interior requirements and design of the shed should pay attention to the following details: the interior is divided by movable wooden fences into a ram pen, ewe pen, lamb pen, and fattening sheep pen, and each pen is equipped with a hay rack, feed trough, and drinking water equipment. Along the wall inside the shed, a hay rack is set up with wooden strips, about 1 m high, with feeding gaps 15 cm wide. The feed trough can be made of cement or wooden boards into a long trough, generally 25 cm wide at the top, 22 cm wide at the bottom, and 10-15 cm deep, with an arc-shaped bottom; it is best to leave an outward-facing drainage hole. Drinking water equipment is installed along the wall; automatic drinkers can be chosen, installed one every 3 m, and if no drinkers are installed, water buckets can also be placed inside the shed.
2. Moderate Scale and Feeding
The moderate scale of high-leg sheep farming is determined by many factors, such as the farmer's investment capacity, market prices, forage area, feeding and management conditions, and the ratio of males to females. Practice shows that the minimum scale for raising breeding ewes should not be less than 20, and the moderate scale should be 40-50. For specialized large-scale farms, the farming scale is best controlled at 100-200. For free-range high-leg sheep in rural mountainous areas, grazing in summer should follow the principle of going out early and returning early, and grazing can begin at 9 a.m. From 11 a.m. to 3 p.m., the sheep are allowed to rest and eat forage in the pen, and in the afternoon they can be brought back to the pen at 7 p.m. When the sheep return to the pen, sufficient salt and clean drinking water should be provided. Feed the sheep mixed feed (wheat bran, cornmeal, soybean cake plus rice bran and grass meal) 1-2 times a day, and at the same time give the grazing flock lightly salted water 4-6 times a day.
3. Epidemic Prevention Management
Although high-leg sheep have few diseases and are relatively easy to feed, disease prevention and control work should still be done well, and vaccines should be given in a timely manner according to the sheep immunization program. Sheep sheds should be disinfected regularly; at present, parasitic diseases also restrict the development of the sheep industry. Sheep suffering from internal and external parasitic diseases become increasingly emaciated in severe cases, and may even die; in mild cases, they also show varying degrees of emaciation because the sheep's body nutrients are consumed, leading to stunted growth and development in young sheep, a decline in the reproductive rate of adult sheep, reduced wool and mutton production, and damaged sheepskin quality. Therefore, attention must also be paid to the prevention and control of internal and external parasitic diseases in sheep.