A lot of the sheep feeding formulas use corn or grains of some kind, but we don’t feed grain here. We feed a wonderful local meadow grass hay and then start adding alfalfa as the ewes get closer to lambing. You’ll see below that we increase slowly, maintain, increase again, maintain, decrease, maintain, decrease again and stop. This way there is a gradual change to feed and nothing drastic that will upset their digestive system.
When it comes to our rams, llamas, and horse, I’ve included them at the end after the breeding and non breeding ewes.
Fall Pasture Lockdown is usually near November 1st. Sometimes a little before, sometimes a little after. We’ve been breeding the ewes to start lambing the end of December now so that is reflected in the numbers below. Pasture open up is usually the end of March to the beginning of April to let the ground temperatures warm up enough to let the grass start growing well. Weaning for this time frame of late December lambing falls in Mid-April (close to 90 days).
Breeding Age Ewes (averaging 130lbs in weight) per day feeding
After Spring weaning until Fall pasture lock-down:
- Pasture only
After Fall lock-down but before 6 weeks pre-lambing:
- 4lbs grass hay per ewe (usually only for 2 weeks for us)
6 weeks pre-lambing to lambing start:
- 3lbs grass hay/1lb alfalfa per ewe (for 2 weeks)
- 2lbs grass hay/2lb alfalfa per ewe (for 4 weeks) – (the pregnant ewes start to lose room in their bellies for hay so you’ll see the amount of grass hay eaten go down)
First 8 weeks post-lambing – mostly nursing twins (This isn’t all at once. We increase as lambs are born and decrease as the older lambs go past the 8 week mark):
- 2lbs grass hay/4lbs alfalfa per ewe (we’ve noticed the ewes waste a lot of alfalfa at this point so sometimes scale back this amount based on what they will eat)
After 8 weeks post-lambing and before Spring weaning (these are rough numbers as the flock starts to go out on pasture and isn’t as interested in the grass hay available):
- 2 lbs grass hay/2lb alfalfa per ewe (for 2 weeks)
- 2-3 lbs grass hay/1lb alfalfa per ewe (for 2 weeks)
- Pasture only (for 2 weeks), then weaning
Non-breeding Lambs per day feeding
During lambing season, we set up the lamb creep feeder with free choice alfalfa when the oldest lamb is a week of age.
After Spring Weaning until Fall Pasture Lock-down:
- Pasture and access to the creep pen until we run out of alfalfa. (We try to sell the market lambs right away so we aren’t fattening them for our customers – saves money and space. Intact ram lambs we hold onto will be put into the adult ram pen)
After Fall lock-down until Spring pastures open:
- 2-3lbs grass hay/1lb alfalfa per lamb (the alfalfa helps keep them growing in the winter when things slow down and the weather gets cold)
The yearling ewes will move into the breeding ewe pastures once Spring pastures open. The breeding ewes will join them once they’ve weaned and udders dried up.
Rams, llamas, horse per day feeding
After Fall lock-down until Spring pastures open (if it were just adult rams and younger llamas or horse, we probably would just feed grass hay and not the alfalfa):
- 3lbs grass hay/1lb alfalfa per ram (they eat with the llamas and horse so I make sure there’s enough that the old gals get what they need)
- 9lbs grass hay/2lb alfalfa per llama (these gals are elderly so get extra alfalfa)
- 25lbs grass hay/10lbs alfalfa per horse (she’s elderly so get’s extra alfalfa)
Pastures open in Spring until pasture lock-down in Fall:
- Pasture only (if I have enough grass hay leftover from winter, I might feed it for a couple weeks after the pastures first open to keep there bellies from getting upset from all that fresh grass!).
Hope this helps anyone trying to figure out some of their plans!
Hollow Hills Ranch 