Meat quality: Good, consistent meat quality — including its appearance, texture, juiciness, flavor and functionality — can build trust with consumers, leading to more return customers.
Feed efficiency: Maximizing feed efficiency helps producers grow and develop their sheep as quickly and cost-effectively as possible without negatively influencing their health and lifetime productivity.
Maintaining good health: Maintaining optimal animal health throughout the reproductive, growing and finishing phases will allow the sheep to fulfill their genetic potential.
Reproductive success: Working toward good breed-back and healthy pregnancies is crucial for the success of the herd.
Effective diet: Optimizing the inclusion of high-quality forages and ingredients produced on-farm will help minimize the cost of purchased feeds. Enhancing the effectiveness of the diet by supplementing it with research-backed additives that offer a high return on investment will help sheep reach their genetic potential.
Common challenges:
Bunk and water space: Ensure that there is adequate bunk and water space so that all animals have access to the nutrients they need to achieve their intake goals.
High-quality forage: Strive to harvest high-quality forages in order to reduce your purchased feed costs and optimize your dry matter intakes.
Dry matter intakes: Encouraging high dry-matter intakes by offering several meals per day will help maximize production, improve milk components and optimize the rumen health of the sheep.
Mitigating heat stress: Addressing potential heat stress concerns during the summer months will more than pay for itself over time by minimizing any potential decreases in intakes, production and reproduction.
Vaccination protocols: Follow strict vaccination protocols in order to ensure optimal sheep health at all times.
Mortality: Mortality refers the death rate of a herd. Sheep can die for a multitude of reasons depending on their age, environment, stress levels, management and more.
Coccidiosis: A common disease in small ruminants caused by an invasion of protozoa (Eimeria or Iospora) in the intestine, coccidiosis is often identified by inflammation of the intestine, lesions, diarrhea, weight loss and/or sometimes even death.
Stress: Sheep are vulnerable to multiple types of stress, which is usually triggered by changes in their diet, climate, management or transportation, among others. Signs of stress in sheep typically include weight loss, decreased water intake, lethargy and more.
Tips for maximizing health and performance:
Test feed ingredients for mycotoxins. The presence of mycotoxins in feeds can reduce a sheep’s feed intake and have a negative impact on their rumen efficiency. Knowing the mycotoxin concentration in each individual feed ingredient will help with diet formulations that minimize mycotoxin challenges.
Provide proper nutrition. Rations should be balanced to meet the sheeps’ nutritional requirements based on any changes in the available feed ingredients.
Check your stocking rate. Maintaining proper stocking rates is essential, as they ensure that all animals have access to feed. Keeping tabs on your stocking rate also helps you avoid increased pathogen loads, which can occur with overstocked pens.
Conduct a slow transition from starter to finishing rations. This transition provides time for the sheep’s rumen to adapt to higher-starch rations.
Provide appropriate supplementation. Offer research-backed products that support rumen efficiency.
What’s important for sheep?