Sheep are one of the few farm animals that can make the most of pastures. Their consumption of green feed on the land can exceed 60%, which is significantly more than, for example, cows. If you properly organize grazing, you can feed sheep even on pasture of average quality, while the cost of maintaining the animals will be minimal, and the productive qualities of the sheep will be much higher.

Types of pastures:

Based on the nature of cultivation, pastures are divided into two types:

• natural (natural);
• artificial (seeded).

Seeded pastures are more acceptable due to their high nutritional value.

By type they can be divided into dry, flooded, mountainous and swampy. For sheep, upland, steppe and mountain pastures are preferred as the main source of green fodder. Forest, swampy and water meadow pastures are rarely used.

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Preparation for grazing:

In order to make maximum use of pasture resources, increase animal productivity, minimize the cost of their maintenance and at the same time avoid mortality, the farm must carry out the following activities before turning sheep out to pasture:

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Those individuals that, for some reason, physical health, the doctor will prohibit them from being released to pasture, they are separated into groups and left in a stall for treatment and fattening.

A zootechnical analysis of the food supply, the so-called pasture capacity, should also be carried out in order to determine how many heads it can feed.

The transfer of sheep from stabling to grazing should be carried out gradually, in order to prevent gastrointestinal disorders. Since green grass, which is at an early vegetative stage, contains a lot of water and little dry matter, throughout the entire adaptation period it is necessary to give the animals at night small quantity hay or straw.

During the period of grazing, to restore the potassium balance, animals need to consume salt, which should be placed in troughs near resting places and watering places.

Organization of a watering place:

Sheep's water requirements vary depending on conditions. On hot days summer days, watering should occur up to 3 times a day, less hot weather, at least 2 times.

If the water source is located at a distance exceeding the permissible length of the drive (3 km), then it is more advisable to deliver water to the animals’ resting place, otherwise long drives will adversely affect the fatness of the sheep and will render the pasture unusable.

Daily routine:

The sheep are driven out to pasture at 5-6 o'clock in the morning. If there is rich grass, on average an adult will eat its fill in 4-5 hours. Then, at 10-11 o’clock the herd is driven to the resting place. From 14-15 hours grazing should continue until late evening. Some farms practice 24-hour sheep grazing.

What difficulties may arise:

Firstly, it is the contamination of animal fur, and as a result, the deterioration of its productive qualities. To prevent this from happening, the pasture area is thoroughly cleared of debris, bushes and other elements before grazing begins.

Secondly, due to the fact that sheep have a poorly developed higher nervous activity, they are not able to perceive commands, they are herd animals, so many experienced shepherds use grazing in a deployed front. When grazing a flock, it is necessary to monitor each individual, preventing them from gathering in dense groups, as this can lead to heat stroke. It must be said that sheep are especially sensitive to overheating.

Thirdly, in some areas, there is a danger of tick bites; in order to prevent sheep from becoming infected with scabies, it is necessary to carry out timely vaccination and treatment of animals.

Feeding sheep

Issues of summer feeding of sheep in each farm are decided depending on the level of intensification of feed production. In the area of ​​intensive agriculture, long-term cultivated pastures are mainly used. Practice shows that highly productive cultivated pastures with the construction of permanent fences and watering holes on them are an indispensable integral part large complex mechanized sheep farms. This method of producing green fodder will allow for more efficient use of land.

In areas with a lot of pasture, but harsh winter Sheep farmers prefer a stall-pasture system. This system of keeping sheep is characterized by the presence of lightweight premises for sheep - bases - on winter pastures. If the winter is not long and the temperature does not drop below -200C, with strong temperature fluctuations, winds, bases are installed for the sheep, in which the closed part is used only for lambing, or simple sheepfolds with low walls are built.

Winter maintenance largely depends on how the sheep themselves are prepared for it, because sick and undernourished animals do not tolerate the winter period well. Therefore, by the beginning of winter keeping, it is necessary to improve the health of the herd (carry out all medical and preventive checks, trimming hooves, trimming around the eyes, treating possible wounds, breaking up the flock depending on the physiological state and fatness, etc.) and bring the animals to factory fatness. Some of the above-mentioned measures for caring for sheep should be repeated as necessary throughout the winter period.

In winter, most of the day the sheep are kept on the rear near the shed or base. From time to time, the rear and bases are covered with straw, and they are driven into the shed only in snowfall, severe frosts and windy weather. Keeping sheep indoors unnecessarily makes them overly sensitive to cold, dampness, drafts and promotes disease. Therefore, you should look for the slightest opportunities for winter grazing of sheep. In winter, the duration of daily grazing is sharply reduced, and new grazing becomes limited. The sheep are turned out to pasture when it gets warmer and the frost has cleared from the grass, and are returned to roost later. They do not take a break from grazing during the day, but at night they graze not far from the sheepfold for 2-3 hours. At the end of winter, night grazing is especially necessary due to the fact that green grass appears on the pasture. At this time, during daytime grazing, sheep stop eating roughage, preferring green grass, which they can't get enough of. To force sheep to eat roughage, they are grazed at night, which makes the sheep less picky, and along with greens, they eat grass from last year's growing season. As a rule, sheep should not be grazed during icy conditions, when the wet grass is frosted or frozen, or on days of heavy storms and snowfalls or on dark, cold nights, especially with strong winds. Sheep are always driven out to pasture against the wind, so that they return with the wind, but it is important to monitor the change in wind direction.

Winter grazing on natural pastures satisfies their needs by approximately 50%, and therefore, without additional feeding, the live weight of sheep can decrease by up to 50%, and with extreme scarcity of pastures, animals can become exhausted and die. That's why winter feeding sheep in addition to pasture is mandatory, which depends on the supply of feed on the pasture, their botanical composition and biological value, weather conditions, quality of grazing, etc. Feeding sheep in addition to grazing begins after it has been established that the sheep are losing weight due to lack of pasture (and in addition, the vegetation of winter pastures is poor in protein, 3% or less), and this can be done establish by weighing control groups of animals (5-8% in each flock).

Sheep are artiodactyl mammals that were domesticated by ancient man for their wool and delicious meat. A creature that provides double benefit to its owner lives in different countries, especially sheep are popular in China, Australia, India, South Africa, China, etc. Sheep farming has found its niche among agricultural activities. Lamb, the name given to meat obtained from sheep, is one of the important food products of these countries. In addition to meat and wool, these animals also provide milk, skin, and culinary sheep fat. Many people who want to engage in sheep farming do not know how to properly care for these artiodactyls, how to graze sheep, feed them and shear their wool.

Livestock are taken out to graze in the afternoon for no more than half an hour, they are fed before lunch and are given water before going out. During grazing, you should not move them too often and disturb them; it is best to have two shepherds, one walking behind the herd and the other in front. It is necessary to remember that young green grass contains a large amount of potassium, which leads to an excess of it in the animal’s body and can cause convulsions. If a mammal has a potassium imbalance, it is given 8-10 g of table salt per day.

For large quantity wool and animal fatness you need to know how to raise sheep. The rearing of artiodactyls depends on the seasons; in winter, sheep are kept in stalls; in spring, a gradual transition to grazing is organized. Stall maintenance should take place in regularly cleaned rooms, free for the movement of artiodactyls, the floor is covered with compacted clay. Staying on the pasture in summer lasts up to 10-12 hours, while in autumn it is 7-8 hours. Before the grazing season opens, livestock have their hooves trimmed and fed with hay for a while. Sheep's water requirement is 3-4 liters in normal times and 6 liters in hot weather; animals are given water 2-3 times a day; the water temperature should be at least 10 degrees. WITH proper care The lifespan of a sheep is 25 years.

But still, how to care for sheep? The main thing to know simple rules keeping these mammals. Sheep are unpretentious, hardy animals, easily adaptable to pastures on mountain slopes, in semi-deserts and foothills. In addition to regular food, it is sometimes necessary to pamper them with fortified foods, such as sugar beets; their daily intake ranges from 4-5 kg. Usually beets are mixed with concentrates, straw chaff, and only in some cases they are given whole. Animals will also be happy with: carrots, boiled potatoes, and even chopped pumpkin.

Shearing of small-horned cattle is also important for caring for sheep. Here is a description of how to shear sheep with scissors: first of all, it is important to remember that artiodactyls are sheared at certain times to direct productivity. Animals with homogeneous hair are shorn once a year in the spring, and those with mixed hair are shorn twice a year in spring and autumn. The timing is determined by taking into account weather conditions and wool germination. Before shearing, the mammal is not fed for about 24 hours and not given water for about 12 hours; it is sheared on prepared tables, a wooden floor or a tarpaulin, so as not to pollute or lose its hair.

The rule for shearing sheep with a machine is quite simple and is almost no different from shearing with scissors. The main thing is that the teeth of the comb of the machine always come into contact with the skin; it is important not to pass over the same place of the skin twice, this leads to the formation of nicks and reduces the quality of the wool. First, the animal's left side is shorn, placing it on the table so that its legs are deprived of support, then the machine is turned off, the sheep is turned over and the right side is shorn. Then they take hold of the back and head of the cattle, and after shearing, lubricate the scratches and cuts.

With the onset of warm and dry weather, lambs with their queens should be released into a pasture close to the sheepfold. First, the older and stronger lambs are released, and then the younger and weaker ones. Lambs with queens cannot be driven quickly. If the watering hole is far away, water must be transported and watered to the lambs from a watering trough (on wheels). Long hauls greatly deplete the queens with lambs and lead to underdevelopment of the young. At the same time, the queens produce little milk, lose weight, feed the lambs poorly, and do not recover by the time mating begins.

The queens and lambs need to be grazed on the best pastures. From 3 weeks of age, when warm nights set in, the queens are left with the lambs in the base overnight. To shelter the lambs from the rain, they build a canopy.

Weaning lambs from queens in commercial herds should be carried out no earlier than 2.5-3 months of age, depending on the fatness of the queens, lambs and the condition of the pastures. Lambs should be culled from breeding dams of fine-fleece, English beef, Romanov and other breeds of sheep no earlier than 3-4 months of age.

Lambs must be weaned from their uterus gradually, first weaning off the most developed and strong ones. Ewes entering milking that have suckling lambs can be milked only when their lambs reach 2-2.3 months. The most developed lambs can be culled at 2.5 months. Weak lambs are left under the uterus for up to another month. Lambs weaned from their mothers must be provided with the best grazing and fed with concentrates, silage, salt and mineral supplements (according to the standards indicated above).

When milking sheep, the so-called suckling-milking method is used, in which the queens are milked even before the lambs are killed, starting from 2-2.5 months of age.

The killed young animals are formed into flocks. In this case, it is necessary not only to separate the rams from the lambs, but, if possible, to group the lambs so that the flocks or groups consist of lambs that are well-fed and sufficiently developed, and lambs that are weaker and less developed. The flocks must be homogeneous in terms of the composition of the young and their fatness.

For better rearing of lambs, flocks of young animals should in no case be made large. For lambs of fine-wool breeds, it is necessary to assemble a flock of no more than 400-600 heads, for semi-coarse-wooled lambs - 500-700 heads, for coarse-wooled lambs - 750-1000 heads. The combination of young animals into flocks should not lead to deprivation of responsibility when raising lambs. In a flock, you must also adhere to an individual approach to each lamb, and do not allow strong lambs to eat more stern.

Proper organization grazing sheep is possible only if there is a strictly thought-out plan on the farm. The nutritional value of vegetation on pastures varies in different seasons. The requirements are also different. separate groups animals to pasture.

Pastures can be virgin, fallow, mountain, forest and swampy. Sheep also graze through the stubble - until the plowing snow rises. Virgin pastures are used mainly, in the spring, when the grass on them has not yet burned out, or in the fall, when the steppe has turned green again from the rains.

Fallow pastures do not burn out as much, and they can also be used in summer months. Mountain and foothill pastures can also be used in the summer, before the autumn rains.

Forest pastures are less suitable than others for sheep. Swampy pastures can only be used after drainage. When keeping sheep on pasture in drained swamps, it is necessary to strictly carry out preventive veterinary and zootechnical measures to combat helminthic diseases.

When grazing pastures, you need to carefully monitor the condition of their vegetation. In arid areas, it is necessary, first of all, to use fescue and bluegrass-wormwood pastures. In spring, the vegetation of these pastures is readily eaten by sheep.

In this case, feather grass pastures can be grazed secondarily, but not later than May and the first half of June, i.e., before the feather grass seeds ripen. It should be remembered that feather grass seeds clog the wool so much that even with factory production it is impossible to completely remove them from the wool. These seeds sometimes pierce the skin of animals and, when they enter the body of a sheep, cause illness and often death, especially in fine-wool sheep.

After feather grass pastures, weedy pastures should be used, then wheatgrass and other pastures, and lastly, salt marsh pastures.

The best pastures must be reserved for young animals born this year. Along with pasture feeding, lambs need to be fed concentrates.

Breeding rams, which constitute the most valuable part of the herd, should receive good pasture near the sheepfold. Breeding rams should be fed with concentrates.

To maintain good milk production, suckling queens need to be provided, if possible, with the most succulent fallow pastures with rich grass.

For yearling lambs and lambs not intended for feeding, the most remote and relatively poorer pastures can be allocated.

Before driving sheep onto pastures, it is necessary to determine the quality of the grass stand and inspect the pastures from a veterinary and sanitary point of view. Special attention should be paid to this matter, remembering that pastures unfavorable with regard to diseases (scabies, brucellosis, anthrax, smallpox, etc.), can be a source of infection for everything. The causative agents of scabies are mites. Scabies is transmitted to healthy sheep from contact with sick ones, through sheep care items, through pastures where sick sheep grazed, and in other ways. The most common method of controlling scabies in sheep is to bathe them in baths with an anti-scabies solution. The most commonly used method is bathing in a 2% solution of coal-tar creolin. They also bathe sheep in a tobacco solution, etc. The preparation and use of all anti-scabies, including creolin solutions, must be done according to. instructions from veterinary personnel. Sheep should be bathed twice, at intervals of 8 days, in order to kill new mites that have emerged from the testicles during this period. Sheep are bathed in baths specially designed for this purpose (as directed by veterinarians). It is necessary to bathe, first of all, less valuable groups of sheep, for example, valukhs. Simultaneously with bathing, be sure to carry out the most thorough disinfection of sheep premises, equipment and other items. After bathing, sheep are grazed on pastures that are not infected with scabies. Without these conditions, treatment will not give positive results. The experience of eliminating scabies on many farms has shown that by simultaneously using not only sheep bathing, thorough disinfection of premises and equipment, but also a strict change of grazing, this disease can be completely and quickly eliminated. Scabies causes great damage to sheep farming. The wool of scabious sheep deteriorates and loses its value. At the same time, the wool shearing decreases, the sheep are greatly depleted, as a result of which their mortality increases. Fighting scabies is not a difficult matter, but it requires great persistence and full compliance with preventive measures; a good shepherd will not allow scabies to spread in his flock.

Phenolic-free coal creolin (Creolinum anphenolum carbonicum) Doses and method of administration. To treat and prevent scabies (psorptosis), sheep are bathed in a floating bath or a specially adapted container with a 2% aqueous creolin emulsion in dry weather at an air temperature of at least 18 °C. The temperature of the cupping emulsion should be within 20 - 25 °C. Exposure - 2 minutes. Sick sheep are bathed twice with an interval of 10 days, suspect sheep are bathed once. Before treatment, animals are given rest, feeding is stopped 4-5 hours, watering is stopped 1-2 hours before treatment. A working emulsion of the drug is prepared before use. For this purpose, creolin is added to a bathtub filled with water and carefully moved at the rate of 2 kg per 100 liters of water (20 kg per 1000 liters). A new filling of the bath is carried out after processing 200 sheep. In this case, for every 1000 liters of water, 20 kg of creolin is added to the bath. When leaving the bath, the animals are kept for 15 minutes on the exit platform to drain the emulsion, and then released onto pasture. During the cold season, animals are kept indoors to dry out. If the bath becomes dirty, it is emptied, thoroughly cleaned of dirt, and the working emulsion is prepared again. After processing the sheep, the acaricidal liquid is poured into settling wells, preventing contamination environment. Before mass treatment of animals, each batch of the drug is tested on a small group of sheep (10 - 15 heads) of varying fatness. If the animals do not show signs of toxicosis within 2 days after treatment, they begin to treat the entire livestock. For disinfection, disinfestation, decontamination and disinfestation of premises, equipment, and care items, use a 3-5% aqueous emulsion heated to 60 °C. For antiseptic treatment (washing) of wounds, hooves and treatment of skin diseases, 0.5 -2.5% aqueous emulsion is used. Side effects. When recommended methods of use and compliance with dosages are not observed. If careless in dosing and use, it can cause toxic effects. Sheep slaughter for meat is permitted 15 days after processing. In case of forced slaughter before the established deadline, the meat is used to feed carnivores. It is prohibited to use milk for food purposes within 15 days after processing.

Before starting grazing, you need to carefully examine the sheep, trim their hooves, trim the hair around the eyes, then on the inner surface of the hind legs, in the anus and on the udder.

At the beginning of grazing, you need to take into account that you cannot immediately switch from winter housing to grazing. In the morning, before being driven out to pasture, and in the evening, upon returning the sheep, they must be fed with hay. Avoid grazing animals on wet grass. Such grazing spoils grazing, reduces its nutritional value and has a detrimental effect on the health of sheep, especially lambs. First of all, stronger and lower-value groups of animals should be driven out to pasture: cows, then queens, rams, and lastly lambs born last year.

Pastures assigned to flocks must be divided into smaller areas - paddocks. Sheep are grazed in each paddock for no more than 5-6 days and returned to them no earlier than after 3 months. Under no circumstances should you overgraze or trample pastures, remembering that this leads to a decrease in their productivity. With a driven grazing system, the quality of pasture vegetation increases significantly. In addition, with this method of using them, by the end of the last paddock, the grass on the first paddock will grow back again, and the sheep can again enter the first paddock.

The use of a pen system brings great benefits to the farm and significantly increases its profitability. With such grazing of pastures, not only does their productivity increase, but the herd is also protected from infection with helminthic diseases.

It should be remembered that an experienced shepherd can feed sheep well even on average quality pastures. A bad shepherd, who does not take care of his flock, does not follow the instructions of livestock specialists, does not know the technique of proper grazing, will not feed the sheep even on good pastures and will not keep them in a state of above-average fatness until wintering.

The best shepherds graze, as they say, “from under their feet” - with a deployed front, across the paddock. In the morning, while the sheep are hungry, they begin to graze the sheep along yesterday's old trail, and then move on to a new pasture. With this method, pastures are used most usefully and profitably.

Experienced shepherds never stay for a long time on one “tyrla” (pasture parking place), but have two or three permanent “tyrlas”. At the same time, shepherds do not make permanent fences (bases) on the pasture for queens with lambs - they know that a long stay in one place not only leads to complete overgrazing of pastures, but also to infection of sheep with worms. Lambs with uteruses, being at the base in crowded conditions, in the mud, move little, do not have free access to the uterus, lose weight and develop poorly.

Sheep need to be grazed slowly, given that strong animals always run ahead and eat the best food, while weaker sheep lag behind and receive worse food, which makes them lose weight even more. Merino sheep, as less active animals, should be grazed separately from rough-wool sheep, since the latter, running ahead, eat and trample the grass. In summer, in hot weather, good shepherds herd sheep at night, and in the morning they drive the sheep into the wind so that during the day during the heat they return to the parking lot against the wind, if possible, so that the sun is behind and does not shine in the eyes of the sheep.

In the autumn, more cold weather, the sheep are driven in the morning against the wind so that in the evening, when it gets cold, the sheep can be driven to the parking lot downwind. With such grazing, the sheep eat better.

When standing on the rear and during grazing, you need to sort out the sheep and carefully monitor each sheep. It is necessary to trim their hooves, fight worms (larvae of blowflies), and constantly ensure that scabies does not appear or spread on the animals. Counting the sheep of the entire flock should be done less frequently, in order to avoid a decrease in the fatness of the livestock.

Special attention should be given to good quality watering for the herd. You cannot water hot sheep and, moreover, the entire flock at once; The troughs should be made as long as possible and the sheep should be driven to them in small groups. If the watering hole is located far away, water must be transported directly to the pasture. When grazing, it is advisable to organize mechanical water supply. It is necessary to make wider use of wind power on farms to construct simple windmills. To increase the fatness of sheep sold for meat, it is necessary to widely use their feeding. Adult ewes and rams culled due to old age and young ewes born in the current year, both coarse-haired and mixed-breed, with heterogeneous wool of the 3rd and 4th classes, discarded as unsuitable for further breeding, can be supplied for feeding. In addition, for fattening you can use barn queens for several years, then rams, which, when thoroughly tested, produce unusable sperm, as well as all other animals that are not needed for the farm and produce little high-quality wool.

Sheep are usually culled in the fall. For better organization of feeding, it is advisable to cull in the spring in order to organize feeding flocks in the 3rd quarter.

All sheep entering feeding must be formed into special flocks according to gender, age, breed and condition of condition. It should be remembered that only homogeneous groups of animals, distributed according to all the listed characteristics, can fatten evenly and well.

In large sheep farms, adult sheep are formed into flocks of up to 900-1,000 heads, young sheep - into flocks of 600-800 heads. In small farms, feeding can be done in groups of 100-150 animals. Those queens that are singled out for meat should not be allowed to be milked.

Sheep intended for slaughter and entering feeding time must be sheared no later than two months before slaughter. This is necessary so that the wool on them has time to grow sufficiently and the sheepskin is suitable for fur coat production, and mixed-breed sheep (from fine-wool sheep) have a wool length of no shorter than 2-2.5 centimeters at slaughter. Sheep shearing later than 2 months before slaughter is prohibited.

Adult rams, ewes and ewes culled in the spring should go into feeding immediately after spring shearing. Thick lambs go to feeding immediately after weaning. After this, the queens, culled by age, go to feed.

Considering that the young animals selected for fattening are still growing, the sheep are provided with the best pastures with a predominance of young legumes, while adult sheep can be provided with wormwood, soursop, fallow pastures and stubble.

For better fattening if the pasture is not good enough, it is advisable to feed the cowtails with concentrates at the rate of 100-200 grams per head per day. Feeding sheep need to be watered once a day.

Control over the feeding condition is carried out over a special group of sheep in the amount of 5-10%. Sheep in this group must be weighed (every 20 days) to compare with sheep that did not enter feeding.

Sheep need to be weighed in the morning, before they are taken out to pasture and water. During the feeding period, sheep should increase their live weight by at least 20-30 percent of their original weight.

Igor Nikolaev

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The right approach to herd these animals is the key to their rapid growth and good weight gain, so you need to take this process seriously.

When switching from stall housing to pasture housing for the first time, sheep are released for grazing after lunch and for no more than half an hour. Before lunch, the animals must be fed with hay, and before grazing, they must be given water. In the pasture, you should try not to disturb the animals by frequent movements from one place to another. To reduce pasture trampling, it is best to herd sheep in a deployed formation, for which one sheep shepherd (or shepherdess) goes in front of the flock, and the second (second) goes behind.

At the beginning of the grazing period, one should take into account the fact that succulent spring feeds have a high potassium content.

If its concentration in the animal’s body exceeds permissible norm– the potassium-sodium balance will be disrupted, and this can lead to convulsions in sheep. To maintain this balance at the desired level, animals should be given loose table salt, which is high in sodium. Portions are measured at the rate of 8 to 10 grams per sheep per day.

You should start grazing sheep as early as possible, from about 5 to 6 in the morning, since at this time it is not so hot and there are fewer harmful insects. Grazing continues until 11 - 12 noon, after which you need to take a break from 12 to 15. At this time, the flock should be driven into the shade or closer to the river for rest, and then grazing can continue until 20-21 pm.

Since lack of water is tolerated worse by sheep than lack of food, in hot weather summer period they need to be watered at least two to three times a day, and in cooler weather autumn time– at least once or twice.

When choosing places for grazing, you should take into account the direction of the wind and the position of the sun so that the sheep do not go against it.

When grazing, you should also avoid feeding grounds rich in tyrsa (feather grass).

If sheep can still eat young feather grass, then at the budding stage it becomes tougher and forms quickly ripening panicles with seeds. This can negatively affect animals, since tyrsa seeds have, on the one hand, a long and sharp end and a column, and on the other hand, they have a spiral shape, as a result of which they easily cling to sheep wool and can pierce skin animal. Over time, this causes hair loss at the puncture site and possible purulent inflammation.

The sheep shepherd must ensure that lambs do not feed around gopher holes when grazing, since the soil around them often contains worms or pathogens, which can cause the death of young animals.

Pastures can be divided into three types: soft, flooded meadows and floodplains:

The best pastures for sheep grazing are considered to be those with a high content of timothy and white clover.

Many sheep breeders think that sheep cannot be kept on alfalfa pastures. It should be said that, subject to certain rules, it’s quite possible. Such rules include, for example, the following: sheep cannot be grazed on alfalfa either during rain or immediately after it; Also, hungry sheep should not be allowed to go to alfalfa (they should first be fed on natural pastures).

If you want to use alfalfa land for grazing, then you should follow this regime: before grazing on such land, let the sheep go to natural pastures for an hour, then let them go to alfalfa for 10-15 minutes, after which again take the flock to natural grazing for an hour. Then, when the alfalfa in the animals’ stomachs is covered with ordinary grass, you can let the sheep feed on the alfalfa for another half hour. Within one day, such alternation can gradually increase the time for sheep grazing on alfalfa land.

Much more dangerous than alfalfa for sheep is red clover. On such pastures, animals can begin to graze only after the fall has been removed, and only the second year after sowing, since in the first year this plant contains gosypol, a nerve poison.

IN middle lane In Russia, one hectare of pasture land can feed two or three sheep for seven months (including haymaking).

Always reserve the best feeding grounds for fattening young animals and grazing breeding stock.

A quick change of diet when switching from winter housing to grazing can cause significant harm to animals, for example, causing bloating, cramps and, in particularly advanced cases, even death of livestock. A lot depends on who herds the sheep. An experienced shepherd organizes sheep grazing in such a way that the animals quickly gain weight and at the same time remain alive and healthy.