During a time when Mother Nature wreaks havoc on the climate, it can be challenging to provide adequate forages to cattle. However, regardless of if you are in dry climate where resources are dwindling or if you are in an area of excess rain, sheep and goats often compliment the grazing system.
It is important to point out that these small ruminants will often eat different parts of the plants than cattle and are more efficient at converting their forages to gain. Sheep and goats vary from cattle in the types of forages they prefer. They will eat the shorter forbs or shrub-like plants before they eat the taller grasses. They typically will go for the most nutritious parts of the plants first, the leaves and anything that is soft before they eat the stems or even grass. It is best to have a variety of plant species and turn your sheep and goats out when those plants are in the vegetative stage instead of a more mature stage to receive optimum nutrients from the forages. It is essential to have forages that are high in digestible fiber and at high enough levels of crude protein to keep their rumens functioning properly.
Especially in a drought situation like many producers are currently facing, sheep and goats would make more economical sense to raise. They will still help with pasture management while providing protein and a source of income with a relatively good ROI, depending on your overall investment in the livestock and fencing materials.
Anytime you or your customers are grazing small ruminants like sheep or goats, don’t forget they still need mineral. During the drought, especially, the Amaferm® in the DuraFerm® line, will help stretch your feedstuffs to get the most nutritional value out of your forage. Amaferm is a research-proven precision prebiotic designed to enhance digestibility by amplifying the nutrient supply for maximum performance. It is designed to increase the energy available to the animal resulting in more milk production as well as the ability to initiate and maintain pregnancy and fertility.
During the summer heat, your sheep customers will want to use DuraFerm Sheep Concept•Aid® HEAT®, specifically designed with the HEAT package to help mitigate heat stress anytime temperatures reach hotter that 70 degrees. The combination of HEAT and Amaferm help maintain that core body temperature, keeping the sheep cooler and helping reduce heat stress, which in turn helps get ewes bred and keeps them bred if breeding in the summer and early fall.
Goats are referred to more as browsers than grazers, because although they do graze like sheep do with their heads down, they also like to climb up a structures and trees to get leaves and greens that are up high, too. If you or a customer has goats, be sure to provide them with a DuraFerm Goat Concept•Aid Protein Tub. This convenient tub offers 20% protein, especially important during a drought when protein might not be so readily available. The other ingredients in Concept•Aid are key to reproductive success of the herd.
Smaller animals take up less space. They also will eat some of the less popular forages that cattle will leave standing. Sheep and goats make economical sense from a grazing standpoint, especially during a drought. Contact your local extension personnel if you have questions about grazing sheep and goats or even comingling them with cattle. However you graze your pastures, don’t forget the Amaferm advantage in DuraFerm.