Sheep Raising Technique with Forage

In order to raise sheep well, we must have sufficient feed, so we must open up a wide range of feed sources to ensure that goat feed continues all the year round. Leguminous forage and gramineous forage are mainly selected in forage raising sheep. Let's take a look at the detailed technical introduction of forage raising sheep.

Forage variety selection

Sheep is also a herbivore with ruminating function, with a well-developed compound stomach and a strong ability to digest and utilize crude fiber. In the feed eaten by sheep, 55% to 95% of non-structural carbohydrates and 70% to 95% of crude fiber are digested in the rumen. Therefore, it is recommended that sheep raising should be based on Gramineae forage grass, with reasonable legume forage varieties. The first choice for leguminous forage varieties is alfalfa or Astragalus adsurgens. Forage sorghum, Sudan grass and their hybrids, barnyardgrass and other varieties are mainly selected for gramineous forage.

In terms of variety matching, the ratio of leguminous forage to gramineous forage was 1:2. Each sheep needs to consume 1400 kg of green feed, 460kg of leguminous forage and 940kg of gramineous forage per year. Under normal production conditions, each sheep needs about 0.15 mu of leguminous forage and 0.16 mu of gramineous forage.

Fresh feed utilization

1. Harvest time

The harvesting period of legume forage used for fresh feeding is earlier, and it is generally suitable to be cut from early bud stage to budding stage, harvesting 3-4 times a year. Sudan grass, its hybrids and forage sorghum should be harvested at the early or early booting stage, and the growth period of the final harvest should not exceed the late heading stage, harvesting 1-3 times a year. Barnyardgrass should be mowed at booting stage, and the final growth period should not exceed the milk stage, harvesting 2-3 times a year.

2. Feeding method

After a little drying, the timely harvested forage grass is directly put into the barn for sheep to feed, this feeding method is not scientific, although it is convenient to use, but the loss and waste is serious. In production, the newly harvested fresh grass is generally properly processed and then fed to sheep. There are two main processing methods:

One is to use the cutting machine to cut it properly and then feed the sheep with a length of 2 to 3 centimeters.

Second, the grass is crushed. For forage grasses with high crude fiber content such as sorghum and Gaodan grass, crushing with soft crusher can improve the digestibility of crude fiber, increase palatability and improve the utilization rate of roughage. It is suitable to feed 10 kg of sheep and 8-9 kg of goat every day. The feeding proportion is 30%-40% for leguminous forage, 60%-70% for forage sorghum, Sudan grass and their hybrids, and barnyard weeds.

Silage utilization

1. Harvest time: perennial legume grasses such as alfalfa and Astragalus adsurgens are generally not the main raw materials for individual variety silage, but they should still be preserved by silage in some cases. The most suitable harvest time for legume silage is the early flowering stage, which should not exceed the full flowering stage at the latest, and the crude protein content is higher in the early flowering stage. although the crude protein content decreased and the crude fiber content increased in the full flowering stage, the forage yield was the highest. after the crude fiber was decomposed by silage fermentation, its palatability and utilization rate were still very high. Sudan grass and its hybrids, forage sorghum and barnyard should be harvested from early booting to early flowering stage and at the latest to milk stage.

2. Silage method: leguminous forage is generally not suitable for individual silage, but can be mixed with Sudan grass and its hybrids, forage sorghum and barnyard to make mixed silage. The mixed proportion is leguminous forage: grass forage is 30%, 40%, 40%, 60%, 70%. Low moisture silage can also be carried out, that is, the water content of the raw material is reduced to 45% to 55% for silage. Sudan grass and its hybrids, forage sorghum and barnyard can be made into silage separately. The commonly used silage facilities are silage cellar, plastic bag silage and stretch film silage.

3. Feeding method

Daily feeding of ① silage. The daily feeding capacity of sheep is 4 kilograms and that of goats is 3 kilograms.

When feeding pregnant sheep with ② silage, it should not be fed 20-30 days before and after delivery, and frozen silage should not be fed to avoid miscarriage.

③ silage can not be fed to livestock alone, but should be mixed with other feed according to a certain proportion, generally no more than 50% of sheep diet.

④ is taken out every day according to the actual feed intake of sheep and taken as soon as possible to minimize the storage time and avoid secondary fermentation. The silage left uneaten by livestock in the trough should be removed in time and cannot be put back into the silage container.

Hay utilization

Hay refers to the timely harvested forage grass which can be preserved for a long time after natural or artificial drying to reduce the moisture to less than 17%. It is the main roughage in the dry season of sheep in winter and spring.

1. Hay processing: alfalfa, barnyard, Sudan grass and their hybrids can be processed into high quality hay. The dry matter of forage sorghum has low crude protein content and high crude fiber content, so it is generally not suitable for processing hay products. The suitable harvest time of alfalfa for processing hay is generally from budding stage to early flowering stage, when the harvest can ensure the quality and yield of hay products. The suitable cutting period for barnyardgrass, Sudan grass and their hybrids is heading stage. The hay processing method generally adopts the natural drying method, that is, after the grass harvested in the right time is cut, the grass is cuddled along the ridge, spread out in the sun on the spot, spread evenly as far as possible, and turn in time according to the drying condition, so that all the grasses in the grass can be fully exposed to the dry air. After drying for 6 hours and 7 hours, the alfalfa was bundled into bundles weighing about 1 kilogram and grasses into bundles weighing about 4 kilograms, and the local code was made into a "human"-shaped haystack. After drying for 36 hours, the forage stalk was easily broken by hand and was prepared into hay with a moisture content of 15% 17%.

2. Feeding methods: there are mainly two kinds of hay feeding methods, one is hay direct feeding, the other is short feeding. After the processed hay is stored for a period of time, the sheep are fed according to their daily needs. Generally, the hay bundles are opened and thrown directly into the sheep shed or trough, where the sheep are free to feed. This feeding method is simple, but the forage loss is about 510%. In production, it is generally adopted to cut short and feed, first cut the hay into hay sections by using a grass guillotine, and then feed it. Gramineous forages are generally cut into 2 cm and 1 cm for sheep and legumes respectively. The proportion of leguminous hay fed to sheep is generally no more than 30% of the diet, and gramineous forage is free to feed.