Technical Methods and Management Key Points for Raising Sheep with Forage Grass

To raise sheep well, you need an adequate supply of feed, so feed sources must be broadened to ensure that goat feed is available year-round. In forage grass sheep-raising, legumes and grasses are mainly chosen. Below, let us learn about the detailed technical introduction to raising sheep with forage grass.

Selection of Forage Grass Varieties

Sheep are also a kind of herbivorous animal with rumination function, possessing a well-developed complex stomach and a strong ability to digest and utilize crude fiber. Of the feed that sheep consume, 55%-95% of non-structural carbohydrates and 70%-95% of crude fiber are digested in the rumen. Therefore, planting grass to raise sheep should be based mainly on grasses, with a reasonable mix of legume varieties. The preferred legume variety is alfalfa; milkvetch (Astragalus adsurgens) can also be used. For grasses, the key choices are forage sorghum, Sudan grass and its hybrids, and barnyard millet, among other varieties.

In terms of variety mixing, the ratio of legumes to grasses is 1:2. Each sheep needs to consume 1400 kg of green feed per year, of which about 460 kg is legumes and 940 kg is grasses. Under normal production conditions, each sheep needs about 0.15 mu of legumes and about 0.16 mu of grasses.

Fresh Feeding Utilization

1. Harvesting Period

Legumes used for fresh feeding are harvested somewhat earlier, generally cut from the early bud stage to the bud stage, with 3-4 harvests per year. Sudan grass and its hybrids and forage sorghum should begin harvesting at the early booting stage or slightly earlier, and the final harvest should not exceed the late heading stage, with 1-3 harvests per year. Barnyard millet should begin cutting at the booting stage, and the final harvest should not exceed the milk-ripe stage, with 2-3 harvests per year.

2. Feeding Methods

Feeding forage grass that is harvested at the right time directly into the barn for sheep to eat after only slight drying is not a scientific feeding method. Although it is convenient to use, losses and waste are serious. In production, newly harvested fresh grass is generally processed appropriately before being fed to sheep. There are mainly two processing methods:

One is to use chopping machinery to chop it appropriately before feeding it to sheep, with a chopped length of 2-3 cm.

The second is rubbing and crushing the forage grass. For grasses with relatively high crude fiber content such as forage sorghum and sorghum-Sudan grass hybrid, rubbing and crushing with a rubbing machine increases the crude fiber digestion rate, improves palatability, and raises the utilization rate of roughage. The suitable daily feeding amount is 10 kg for sheep and 8-9 kg for goats. As for the feeding ratio, legumes generally account for 30%-40%, while forage sorghum, Sudan grass and its hybrids, and barnyard millet account for 60%-70%.

Silage Utilization

1. Harvesting Period: Perennial legumes such as purple alfalfa and milkvetch (Astragalus adsurgens) are generally not the main raw material for single-variety silage, but under certain circumstances they still need to be preserved by silage. The most suitable harvesting period for legumes used to make silage is the early flowering stage, and it should not be later than the full flowering stage. The crude protein content is relatively high at the early flowering stage; although the crude protein content decreases somewhat and the crude fiber content increases at the full flowering stage, the forage yield is the highest, and after the crude fiber is decomposed through silage fermentation, its palatability and utilization rate are still very high. Sudan grass and its hybrids, forage sorghum, and barnyard millet are best harvested from the early booting stage to the early flowering stage, and at the latest at the milk-ripe stage.

2. Silage Method: Legumes are generally not suitable for silage alone and can be made into mixed silage with Sudan grass and its hybrids, forage sorghum, and barnyard millet, with a mixing ratio of legumes:grasses of 30%-40%:60%-70%. Low-moisture silage can also be carried out, that is, silage made after the raw material moisture content is reduced to 45%-55%. Sudan grass and its hybrids, forage sorghum, and barnyard millet can be made into silage alone. Commonly used silage facilities mainly include silage pits, plastic bag silage, and stretch film silage.

3. Feeding Methods

① Daily silage feeding amount. The daily feeding amount is 4-5 kg for sheep and 3-4 kg for goats.

② When feeding silage to pregnant sheep, note that it should not be fed 20-30 days before and after lambing, and frozen silage must not be fed either, so as to avoid causing miscarriage.

③ Silage cannot be fed to livestock alone; it should be mixed with other feed in a certain proportion, generally not exceeding 50% of the sheep's daily ration.

④ Take it out each day according to the sheep's actual intake, use it as you take it, minimize storage time as much as possible, and avoid secondary fermentation. Silage that livestock have not finished eating in the trough should be removed promptly and must not be put back into the silage container.

Hay Utilization

Hay refers to forage grass harvested at the right time that is dried naturally or artificially until the moisture content drops below 17%, making it a forage that can be stored for a long time. It is the main roughage for sheep during the winter and spring withered grass period.

1. Hay Processing: Purple alfalfa, barnyard millet, and Sudan grass and its hybrids can be processed into high-quality hay. After forage sorghum is sun-dried, the dry matter has low crude protein content and high crude fiber content, so it is generally not suitable for processing into hay products. The suitable harvest period for purple alfalfa used for hay processing is generally from the bud stage to the early flowering stage; harvesting at this time can ensure the quality and yield of the grass product. The suitable cutting period for barnyard millet and Sudan grass and its hybrids is the heading stage. The hay processing method generally adopts natural drying, that is, after forage grass harvested at the right time is cut, it is raked into windrows along the rows and spread out to dry on the spot, spread as evenly as possible, and turned to dry in time according to the drying conditions, so that all the forage grass in the windrows can be fully exposed to dry air. After drying for 6-7 hours, purple alfalfa is tied into bales weighing about 1-2 kg, and grasses are tied into bales weighing about 4-5 kg, stacked on the spot into a “”-shaped hay stack, and drying is continued for 36-48 hours. When the forage grass stems can be easily broken by hand, it has been made into green hay with a moisture content of 15%-17%.

2. Feeding Methods: There are mainly two methods for feeding hay. One is feeding hay directly, and the other is feeding it chopped. After processed hay has been stored for a period of time, it is fed according to the sheep's daily requirement. Generally, after opening the hay bales, the hay is put directly into the sheep barn or feed trough for the sheep to eat freely. This feeding method is simple, but the forage grass loss is about 5-10%. In production, chopped feeding is generally adopted more often: first use a forage chopper to cut the hay into segments, and then feed it. Grasses fed to sheep are generally cut into 2-3 cm, and legumes into 1-2 cm. The proportion of legume hay fed to sheep generally does not exceed 30% of the daily ration, while grasses are fed freely.