Chapter 11.1 Keep your sheep in good condition
Background information
Achieving appropriate nutrition throughout the year is the cornerstone of efficient livestock production. Sheep maintained in adequate condition will achieve production targets. They will also be healthier and have fewer disease problems.
The appropriate condition score (CS) of sheep will vary with the type of enterprise, class of sheep and time of year. If sheep fall below critical condition or graze poor quality and too little pasture, this will result in:
- Reduced reproductive performance of ewes
- Lower lamb survival and growth rate of lambs
- Higher ewe mortality rates
- Lower weaning percentages
- Increased risk of ill thrift or death in weaners
- Reduced productivity for all classes of sheep
- Likely failure to meet market specifications
- Higher risk of disease and health management issues.
Plan to match annual nutritional requirements with feed supply and achieve pasture utilisation without excessive use of supplements. But also know how to formulate cost-effective feeding rations for all seasons.
At a glance
- Maintain sheep in appropriate condition score to achieve production targets and minimise health problems.
- Match annual nutritional requirements with available feed supply.
- Develop a farm management calendar to achieve feeding and welfare standards.
Nutritional requirements
An important management skill is to know when and how much to feed, or when to sell. Be able to recognise when each class of sheep needs supplementary feeding to achieve production targets in a cost-effective way.
Successful management of the feedbase will ensure you are able to balance enterprise profitability and pasture utilisation, and that sheep are in the right condition to optimise productivity and productivity and meet your enterprise goals (see chapter 8.3 in MMFS Module 8 Turn Pasture into Product).
It is important to assess both livestock and pastures when considering nutritional requirements:
Assessing livestock
- Know the feed requirements of different livestock classes (see tool 11.1).
- Monitor liveweight of growing sheep to accurately finetune feeding decisions (see tool 11.5). Liveweight is the most important measure in growing stock as they put on fat and muscle at different times of their development and liveweight will give you the clearest picture of their progress.
- Utilise condition scoring (CS, see tool 10.1 in MMFS Module 10 Wean More Lambs) in mature sheep to easily and accurately estimate the amount of muscle and fat covering the backbone and short ribs – the ‘fuel tank’ or 'nutritional wellbeing' your sheep flock. Key times to CS assess ewes include weaning, 8 weeks prior to joining, joining, mid-pregnancy (at scanning), pre-lambing and lamb marking (see tool 11.2).
- Be able to fat score (see tool 3.3 in MMFS Module 3 Market Focused Lamb and Sheepmeat Production) all livestock classes and know critical minimum fat scores of all sheep. Fat score is used for live animal assessment of slaughter animals and scores are based on the tissue thickness (both fat and muscle) at the GR site. The GR site is 110mm from the carcase midline over the 12th rib. This site is used as a reference point because it is easy to measure on both the live animal (by manual palpation) and the hot carcase and provides a good indication of the overall fatness (and yield) of the whole carcase.
- Pregnancy scan ewes – empty, single- and twin-bearing ewes have vastly different feed requirements (see tool 10.8 in MMFS Module 10 Wean More Lambs).
- Draft adult sheep into priority feeding groups based on CS to ensure those most in need are receiving the nutrition they require to improve their condition. This may mean allocating priority mobs to the best available pasture or supplementary feeding.
- Make supplementary feeding decisions early and if it is not profitable to feed some sheep consider options to reduce grazing pressure. It takes nearly four times as much energy to increase liveweight than to maintain it.
- Complete a Fit to join ewe health assessment on all ewes 4-6 weeks post weaning to improve ewe and lamb survival (see signposts). The Fit to join assessment includes checking for lameness, sound udders, condition score and teeth.
- Be aware of the implications on flock structure and future production of selling different livestock classes.
Assessing pastures
Assess pasture availability and quality and predict sheep performance (see pasture assessment techniques in tool 7.6 in MMFS Module 7 Grow More Pasture).
Once livestock and pasture assessments are made, make decisions about feeding management or stock sales. Appropriate levels of supplementary feeding can be provided in a cost-effective way to enable sheep to meet production targets.
Assessing nutritional requirements of livestock (tool 11.1) is important at all stages of the calendar year. Refer to the example of a farm management calendar (tool 11.3) designed to map out key management tactics throughout the year.
Feed budgeting
When feed budgeting, understand seasonal growth patterns of pasture. Aim to fit the periods of peak livestock demand with the height of your pasture supply curve, as meeting the nutritional demands of your sheep with pasture is the most cost-effective option. Comprehensive information on feed budgeting is available from a range of sources (see signposts). Within the constraints of pasture growth and animal demand, feed budgeting enables you to better plan feed supply and demand (see chapter 8.3 in MMFS Module 8 Turn Pasture into Product).
Feed quality
Knowing the feed quality of a supplement is important for formulating rations, particularly as supplements vary in quality. Consider testing feed quality of pasture, grain and hay through independent laboratory services (see signposts).
Energy is the essential nutrient requirement for all livestock and is expressed as megajoules of metabolisable energy (MJ ME). Stock can consume higher quantities of feeds that have higher digestibility or metabolisable energy. Purchase feeds based on the cost of energy (cents/MJ). Refer to tool 11.4 and signposts for more information.
Protein is important for lactating ewes and growing young stock. If available pastures are green, protein will usually be adequate; otherwise protein supplements may be required to satisfy the stock requirements. The value of protein can be calculated based on the cost of protein (cents/unit of protein). Refer to tool 11.4.
It is especially important for weaners to be offered sufficient energy and protein, because when protein is inadequate it doesn’t matter how much energy is in the feed, performance will suffer. Higher growth rates require higher energy and protein levels in the diet to fuel that rate of growth.
Supplementary roughage is required in some circumstances. Lactating ewes grazing very short pasture (less than 600 kg/DM/ha) will require additional roughage in their ration to ensure lactose production in milk. All sheep in feedlots (whether for production or droughtlots) require roughage in their diets.
Supplementary feeding
The basic principles for successful supplementary feeding are:
- Introduction of grain – grains such as wheat, triticale, barley or processed pellets – and, to a lesser degree, oats – that are high in soluble carbohydrates must be introduced carefully as there is a serious risk of acidosis. Follow the guidelines in industry publications (see signposts) or speak with your sheep advisor to discuss your ration.
- Imprint feed lambs – imprint feeding of lambs with ewes before weaning will reduce the time required to train lambs to eat grain. At least 4-6 feedings of grain (or until 90% are eating and not just playing in the feed) over a 2‑4 week period are recommended so that lambs recognise the feeder and remember it for years to come.
- Frequency of feeding – after the introductory period, ensure supplements are fed two or three times a week. Sheep perform better with less frequent feeding and it is more labour efficient. More frequent feeding is necessary when large volumes of feed are required for late-pregnant or lactating ewes.
Preferentially feed weaners and young ewes
Malnutrition is usually a major factor in deaths of young sheep. Weaning weight is the major determinant of survival over summer and autumn in Mediterranean climates and winter and spring in summer rainfall regions.
The impact of poor growth in their first year will have flow-on effects for the reproductive performance of maiden ewes. Tool 10.5 in MMFS Module 10 Wean More Lambs provides guidelines for the bodyweight of weaners and maiden ewes up to their first joining.
Management strategies to ensure adequate weaner growth include:
- Join ewes for 5 weeks to ensure a compressed lambing and provide ewes with adequate nutrition (see chapter 10.1 in MMFS Module 10 Wean More Lambs).
- Imprint feed lambs at least 4-6 times with their mothers before weaning.
- Wean lambs no later than 14 weeks after the start of lambing.
- Wean onto high quality pasture (see chapter 8.2 in MMFS Module 8 Turn Pasture into Product).
- At weaning draft off the lightest lambs and allocate the best quality pasture.
- If lambs are below target weights start supplementary feeding before pasture senesces and quality deteriorates below 65% digestibility.
- Ensure worm control is adequate and investigate unexplained deaths.
- Keep annual death rates below 5%.
- Provide high quality, clean drinking water. Water quality and quantity are important. In hot weather sheep require up to 10% of their body weight in water. Tool 11.6 provides guidelines for water quality limits for different sheep classes and tool 5.2 in MMFS Module 5 Protect Your Farm’s Natural Assets is an information sheet on calculating stock water requirements.
Trace element deficiencies
In some regions, copper, cobalt, selenium and iodine deficiencies cause disease or ill thrift. These occur seasonally in specific areas. High-intensity production systems can exacerbate deficiencies.
Trace element supplementation is only cost effective when deficiencies are identified. Determine the risk of deficiency and if it is likely on your property, use diagnostic tests to determine if trace element deficiencies are present and consult your animal health advisor.
Determine the likely impact of deficiency and beneficial options for treatment and prevention (see tool 11.7 for management options).
SIGNPOSTS
A series of guidelines and recommendations for managing ewe flocks throughout the year.
The AWI website has a series of publications on managing drought recovery.
Develop a drought feeding strategy for sheep or cattle by determining feed requirements for different sheep age groups and pregnancy or lactation status.
Develop a drought feeding strategy for sheep or cattle by determining feed requirements for different sheep age groups and pregnancy or lactation status.
Assists sheep producers to proactively manage the nutrition of their ewe flock through the reproduction cycle utilising condition scoring feed on offer (FOO) assessments.
Assists sheep producers to proactively manage the nutrition of their ewe flock through the reproduction cycle utilising condition scoring feed on offer (FOO) assessments.
View feed budget tables based on feed on offer (FOO) for annual clover-based pastures and mixed perennial and annual pastures.
Improving ewe and lamb survival through pre-joining assessment, using this suite of tools to assess whether ewes are fit to join or not. The resources include a guide and a series of four short instructional videos.
Use this internet tool to calculate the value of feed on an energy and crude protein basis, and examine the energy, protein and cost of any combination of up to four selected feeds.
This web-based gross margin tool enables you to enter different real time production, economic and feeding scenarios to estimate likely profit for a lamb feedlotting enterprise.
Analyse the quality of a range of feeds to understand the amount of energy, protein and digestibility of feed to allow for accurate feed budgeting. Provided by a number of organisations, including:
- Agrifood FEEDTEST
- NSW DPI Feed Quality Service
- Independent Lab Services (WA)
A decision support software tool to help graziers improve the profitability of livestock production through more efficient use of pastures and supplementary feeds.
A decision support software tool used to examine variability in pasture and animal production for sheep and beef enterprises.
This tool provides a systematic basis for planning the management calendar for the breeding flock. The Lambing Planner is available as a hard copy or can be downloaded as an app.
This tool provides a systematic basis for planning the management calendar for the breeding flock. The Lambing Planner is available as a hard copy or can be downloaded as an app.
Allows users to search by species, disease or syndrome to instantly access veterinary advice. Can be accessed online or is available as an app for both iOS and Android.
Allows users to search by species, disease or syndrome to instantly access veterinary advice. Can be accessed online or is available as an app for both iOS and Android.
Allows users to search by species, disease or syndrome to instantly access veterinary advice. Can be accessed online or is available as an app for both iOS and Android.
A practical, one-day workshop highlighting the key production benefits of superior genetics, plus feed management for improved reproductive performance and livestock productivity.
Hands-on workshop focused on improving ram performance and working longevity in commercial sheep enterprises. The workshop is designed increase the skill of producers across the key components of ram performance and impacts on overall breeding enterprise performance, including anatomy, physiology, spermatogenesis, metabolic demands, health, disease & biosecurity and the financial impact of the ram team.
Assists the commercial self-replacing Merino production sector in recognising and placing importance on the total lifetime productivity potential and value of their Merino ewes (fleece, meat and surplus stock) and identifying ‘passengers vs. performers’.
The course is delivered in small groups of 5-7 sheep producers that meet six times per year with a professional trainer. During these hands-on sessions, the group visits each participating farm and learns skills in condition scoring, pasture assessment and best practice ewe and lamb management to increase reproduction efficiency and wool production, mainly through reducing ewe and lamb mortality.
Designed for woolgrowers and is aimed at improving weaner management of their Merino flock, targeting 95% weaner survival to one year of age. WWW identifies key practical actions and tools for commercial enterprises to implement on farm to achieve this performance aim.
A one-day workshop that gives producers a broad understanding of the environment in which they operate and the core principles behind successfully maintaining grazing land condition and long-term productivity.
Designed for producers to develop a thorough understanding of the grazing land environment in which they operate to strategically manage their grazing business to optimise land condition and productivity in the long-term and begin developing grazing land management plans for their properties.
