Key points of grass-growing sheep farming: pasture planting and feeding management methods

Sheep are one of the livestock animals people are familiar with, and their raising in our country has a history of more than 5000 years. As a green farming model, growing grass to raise sheep is increasingly favored, so many farmers are seeking better grass-growing sheep farming techniques. Doing a good job of growing grass to raise sheep is actually not that simple, and there are many aspects that need attention. Below let us take a look at grass-growing sheep farming techniques together!

Common knowledge of growing grass to raise sheep

1. Suitable varieties: You can choose high-yield, high-quality, strongly adaptable pasture varieties such as alfalfa (Medicago sativa), winter grazing 70 rye, cup plant (Silphium perfoliatum), clover, cocksfoot, and rumex.

2. Moderate scale: The farming scale should be determined according to the household labor situation and equipment conditions, and then the planting area should be determined by the farming scale. Under normal circumstances, three mu of forage grass can supply 15-20 adult sheep for year-round feeding. Sheep reproduce relatively slowly, with an annual growth rate of only about 3 times the number of ewes at the beginning of the year, so the pasture planting area should be determined according to the base number of breeding sheep and the development speed, so as to both meet supply and avoid waste.

3. Appropriate crop rotation: The principle for determining the arrangement of pasture crop rotation is to increase pasture yield per unit area and ensure that fresh green forage can be eaten in all four seasons of the year. Reasonably interplanting alfalfa with winter grazing 70 rye can ensure a balanced supply of green feed for sheep throughout the year. In fields of Rumex K-1 hybrid sorrel, interplant annual ryegrass or winter grazing 70 rye.

4. Appropriate feeding amount: Adult sheep need about 4 kilograms of green feed per day, and feeding too much fresh green pasture can easily cause diarrhea. When fresh green feed is sufficient, the proportion of bran in the concentrate should be appropriately increased (bran should account for about 40% of the total concentrate). Rumex K-1 hybrid sorrel has a higher water content, so it should be controlled even more appropriately when fed. Feeding alfalfa or clover alone can easily cause bloat, so they should be fed together with other pastures. Sudan grass and Mexican corn contain hydrocyanic acid in the plants during the seedling stage, so after harvesting they should be dried briefly before feeding.

Fresh feeding utilization techniques

1. Harvesting period: For legume pastures used for fresh feeding, the harvesting period is slightly earlier, generally cutting at the early bud stage to the bud stage is suitable, with 3-4 harvests per year. Sudan grass and its hybrids, and forage sorghum, are suitable for harvesting at the early booting stage or slightly earlier, and the final harvest growth period should not exceed the late heading stage, with 1-3 harvests per year. Barnyardgrass is suitable for cutting at the booting stage, and the final harvest growth period should not exceed the milk-ripe stage, with 2-3 harvests per year.

2. Feeding method: Feeding pasture harvested at the right time directly into the livestock shed for sheep to eat after only brief 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 properly processed before being fed to sheep. There are mainly two processing methods.

① Mechanical chopping: Use chopping machinery to chop it appropriately before feeding to sheep, with a chopped length of 2-3 cm.

② Pasture crushing: For gramineous pastures with relatively high crude fiber content such as forage sorghum and sudangrass, using a crushing machine to crush them improves the digestibility of crude fiber, increases palatability, and improves the utilization rate of roughage. The suitable daily feeding amount is 10 kilograms for sheep and 8-9 kilograms for goats. The feeding ratio is generally 30%-40% legume pasture, and 60%-70% forage sorghum, Sudan grass and its hybrids, and barnyardgrass.

Hay utilization techniques

1. Hay processing: Alfalfa, barnyardgrass, 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. For alfalfa used to process hay, the suitable harvest period 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 barnyardgrass, Sudan grass and its hybrids is the heading stage. The hay processing method generally adopts natural drying, that is, after cutting pasture harvested at the right time, rake it into windrows along the rows, spread it out in place to dry, spread it as evenly as possible, and turn it promptly according to the drying condition so that all the pasture in the windrows can be fully exposed to dry air. After drying for 6-7 hours, bundle alfalfa into bales weighing about 1-2 kilograms, and bundle gramineous pasture into bales weighing about 4-5 kilograms, stack them in place into a “”-shaped haystack, and continue drying for 36-48 hours. When the pasture stems can be easily broken by hand, it has been prepared into green hay with a moisture content of 15%-17%.

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

Silage utilization techniques

1. Harvest period: Perennial legume pastures such as alfalfa and sweetvetch 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 harvest period for legume pasture made into silage is the early flowering stage, and at the latest it should not exceed the full flowering stage. The crude protein content is relatively high at the early flowering stage. Although at the full flowering stage the crude protein content decreases somewhat and the crude fiber content increases, the pasture 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 barnyardgrass are best harvested from early booting to early flowering, and at the latest harvested at the milk-ripe stage.

2. Silage method: Legume pastures are generally not suitable for silage alone, and can be made into mixed silage with Sudan grass and its hybrids, forage sorghum, and barnyardgrass. The mixing ratio is legume pasture:gramineous pasture = 30-40%:60-70%. Low-moisture silage can also be carried out, that is, silage is made after the raw material moisture content is reduced to 45-55%. Sudan grass and its hybrids, forage sorghum, and barnyardgrass can be made into silage alone. Commonly used silage facilities mainly include silage pits, plastic bag silage, and stretch film silage.

3. Feeding method

① The daily feeding amount is 4-5 kilograms for sheep and 3-4 kilograms 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 should not be fed either, so as to avoid causing miscarriage.

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

④ Take it out every day according to the sheep's actual intake, use it as needed, minimize storage time as much as possible, and avoid secondary fermentation. Silage left uneaten by livestock in the feed trough should be removed promptly and must not be put back into the silage container.