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Sheep are gentle mammals known for their abundance of fluffy wool and their sociable nature. These domesticated animals follow a social hierarchy within their herds as they graze around farmlands and go where their leader goes. Although they mostly live on farmland kept by herders, their diet is surprisingly varied. So, what do sheep eat?
Let’s take a look at the diet of these prized livestock and see what foods they eat and how they survive in captivity and in the wild.
What foods do sheep eat?
Sheep eat grasses, plants, legumes and forbs, as they are strict herbivores. Interestingly, sheep can only survive on pasture grass, especially rye grass and timothy, making them self-sufficient livestock during the warmer months.
Sheep are ruminants just like cows, so their digestion is complex enough to break down the food they eat. They get nutrients from plants by chewing their food, regurgitating it as cud, further breaking it down, and then sending it back to their digestive system. While this may seem unusual, this process allows them to get nutrition from plants that would otherwise have little nutritional value.
As a result, sheep eat a wide selection of foods, including:
- Rye-grass
- fescue
- Timothy grass
- Bromegrass
- Reed Canary grass
- Kikuyu grass
- white clover
- red clover
- Lucerne
- Ladino clover
- kura clover
- sunflower seeds
- Oats
- dandelions
- There are
Sheep eat a wide variety of different foods, but they prefer to eat what they can consume quickly. However, sheep are a bit picky with some of their food. They will actively avoid woody plants in favor of softer plants that don’t require as much chewing or difficulty digesting.
How much do sheep eat?
The nutritional requirement of sheep is somewhat high as with most ruminants. Their multi-chambered stomachs require a lot of food to process to make energy for the sheep. In addition, sheep spend between 6 and 8 hours a day grazing, so they need the energy to find food.
In general, farmers follow a simple formula to determine how much sheep eat. They need to eat about 0.03 pounds of food for every pound they weigh. Adult sheep range in size from about 100 pounds to 350 pounds. That means very large sheep, usually rams, can eat between 9 and 10 pounds each day.
The advantage of this situation is that the food that sheep consume most is commonly available in pastures, so the sheep will often find their own food and eat at their own pace during their grazing period. However, a large flock of sheep can eat through a pasture’s resources over time, leading to farmers rotate their livestock between fields to keep them from leaving the area barren.
What do sheep eat in winter?
the vast majority of sheep have been domesticated and today live on farms. In Scotland, there are even more sheep than people, and millions of them live on farms. Although wild sheep still roam the world, especially in Central Europe and North America they are not nearly as numerous as sheep in captivity.
In captivity, sheep tend to feed on anything they can graze in their pasture, along with supplemental food provided by the farmers. However, sheep have different needs in the winter when most of their pastures lack sufficient growth to support the herd. During that time, it is up to the farmers to take care of their flocks by offering rich food along with their typical dishes.
In winter, sheep eat:
- There are
- cereals
- Squash
- pumpkins
- Sheep feed (requires a special formula with the right amount of copper)
- silage
Farmers must provide this food to sheep through feeders to reduce the chances of it becoming muddy and inedible. These foods keep sheep happy and healthy as they crouch through the cold, wet and windy months.
What do lambs eat?
Baby sheep are known as lambs and their nutritional needs are quite different from those of their parents. like many others mammals, lambs need milk from their mothers for the first part of their lives. Usually, a lamb will feed solely on milk for the first two weeks. After that, lambs will start eating small amounts of grasses and grains.
By the time a lamb is 4 to 6 weeks old, it gets about half of its nutrition from mother’s milk and half from pasturage or other sources. They will be fully weaned by the time they are 12 to 14 weeks old on farms.
From then on, lambs will follow the herd of ewes and graze next to them for food.
What predators eat sheep?
Sheep are rather docile creatures without many defenses at their disposal. Rams, both domestic and wild, can use their powerful headbutts to thwart or kill other animals. However, they are relatively helpless and prefer to flee from a fight.
Check out some of the natural enemies that sheep around the world face:
As with most animals, the younger, smaller and older sheep are most at risk from predators. Also, sheep that stray from the herd are more likely to be targeted.
Of course, sheep living on farms are better protected from predators in the form of human structures, herders, guard animals, and mixing the flock with larger creatures to ward off predators. In these cases, however, humans are the main predator, eventually slaughtering sheep after their wool or milk production runs low.
Sheep are gentle mammals usually kept on farms around the world. Millions of sheep are raised every year for their meat, milk and wool. While on farms, they feed on many types of grasses, legumes, and other plants.
Unfortunately, their character puts them at risk as they are rarely aggressive and lack the resources to fend off attacks from serious predators. They have people looking after them on farms and protecting them with the help of other animals, from dogs to… llamas.
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