In this article, we will look at the diet of these animals
and tell you what kind of feed for sheep can be considered balanced.Sheep are herbivores, so their diet mostly consists of food of plant origin. But sometimes, to maintain health and as a nutritional supplement, animal feed may be added to it. The list of products consumed by them is quite wide. It can be divided into separate groups: greens, juicy, coarse and combined feeds. Let’s look at them in more detail.
В этой статье мы рассмотрим рацион этих животных и расскажем, какой корм для овец можно считать сбалансированным.
Овцы — травоядные животные, поэтому их рацион, по большей части, состоит из пищи растительного происхождения. Но иногда для поддержания здоровья и в качестве питательной добавки, в него могут вноситься корма животного происхождения. Перечень продуктов, потребляемых ими, довольно широк. Его можно разделить на отдельные группы: зелень, сочные, грубые и комбинированные корма. Давайте рассмотрим их подробнее.
*information is advisory
Before raising sheep, a novice breeder must carefully study the rules for interacting with them. Namely, the conditions of their maintenance and the rules of feeding.
Greenery
Succulent feed
This group includes products with a high water content in the composition. They are valuable in that they not only saturate the body with various nutrients, but also significantly improve digestion. They include: silage, root crops, gourds.
Silage — is a juicy and nutritious feed that is harvested by preserving greens. Its value is that it is a quality substitute for fresh grass. Which is so lacking for animals in the cold period of time. It not only retains almost all the nutrients found in fresh herbs, but also contains lactic acid in its composition. It is difficult to overestimate its benefits: it has a positive effect on immunity, improves digestion, and contributes to better absorption of roughage.
Root crops and gourds. They are valuable for the content of a large number of vitamins. From this group, the diet of sheep includes the following: carrots, zucchini, pumpkin, fodder beets. They are high in vitamins and fiber, which improves digestion and promotes weight gain. Mandatory in the diet of sires, pregnant and lactating females. Animals eat them with pleasure.
Roughage
This group includes plants that have a coarser structure and therefore require special efforts of the body to digest them. These include: hay, straw, cereals.
Hay. This food is versatile. May be present in the diet at any time of the year. The level of nutritional value depends on the quantity and quality of the plants included in its composition, as well as compliance with storage techniques. Hay made from legumes, clover and alfalfa is considered valuable.
Cereal crops. When served in a non-crushed form, they are treated as roughage. Valued for an increased concentration of nutrients: fats, carbohydrates, proteins and minerals, which contributes to high-quality saturation of the body and subsequent weight gain. Such plants include: grain of corn and oats, peas, wheat, bran and cake. The presence of this group of plants in the diet of sires is mandatory. Since protein and vitamins improve the quality of seminal fluid.
Straw. This product cannot boast of a high degree of nutrition. But it has a low cost. Therefore, it performs in the diet rather than a qualitative, but a quantitative function. Makes food more satisfying. The most useful is straw from legumes, oats and barley plants.
Combined feed
This group includes feed made from a mixture of several components. They come in different types: complete, concentrates, PVS and premixes. We will not go into their analysis now. Since we have already talked about them in these articles:
Compound feed for agricultural birds and agricultural animals
Feed mix for farm animals
However, there are points worth remembering. So it is extremely important that the feed for sheep contains minerals such as: calcium, phosphorus, selenium and sodium chloride. These elements are extremely important for the proper development and functioning of the body of these animals. You can find them in foods such as table salt, bone meal, grass meal, dried algae, dicalcium and sodium phosphate, eggshells, and mineral mixtures.
Due to the increased content of roughage in the diet, especially in the cold season, it is sometimes worth resorting to adding probiotics to the diet. They restore the correct microflora and improve digestion.
Do you want to know what to feed the lambs? Read here:
Compound feed for lambs up to 4 months
What is the diet of rabbits? Read here:
Compound feed for adult rabbits
