Apart from grazing ,sheep are fed on certain diet . explain.
Answers
Answer:
Explanation:
Grass, clover, and forbs
Mostly sheep eat grass, legumes, forbs, and other pasture plants. They especially love forbs. In fact, it is usually their first choice of food in a pasture. A forb is a broad-leaf plant other than grass. It is a flowering plant. Forbs are often very nutritious. As compared to cattle, sheep eat a greater variety of plants and select a more nutritious diet, though less so than goats.
Grazing time
Sheep will graze for an average of seven hours per day, mostly in the hours around dawn and in the late afternoon, near sunset. When supplements are fed to pastured sheep, it is best to feed them in the middle of the day so that normal grazing patterns are not disrupted.
Different plants
Sheep in different geographic areas eat different plants. Tropical forages are usually not as nutritious as those that grow in temperate climates. Either protein or energy may be the limiting nutrient in a forage diet. All forages are more nutritious if they are eaten in a vegetative state.
Pasture (land) requirements
The amount of pasture or range land that it takes to feed a sheep depends upon the quality of the land (soil), the amount and distribution of rainfall, the species of forage, and the management of the pasture.
In dry climates, one acre (or hectare) of pasture or rangeland cannot feed as many sheep as an acre of pasture in a moist climate. An acre of pasture in the wet season (spring and fall) can support more sheep than an acre in the dry season (usually summer).
Plants do not grow at the same rate all year round. Some plants do most of their growing in cool weather (spring, fall), whereas others produce the most growth during the warmer months. If different forage species are planted, it is possible to provide year-round grazing for sheep, with snow cover being the only limiting factor.
Reproductive rates and lamb growth rates are lower in arid climates than high-rainfall areas that grow more plentiful forage. As a result, wool production tends to be of greater importance in arid and semi-arid environments, as it takes less nutrition to grow good quality wool than to produce milk and raise lambs. A farmer may be able to graze ten sheep on one acre of improved pasture in Maryland, whereas one sheep could require ten acres of native range in West Texas.
Stored feed
When fresh forage is not available or it is inadequate to meet their dietary requirements, sheep are usually fed stored or harvested feeds: hay, silage, balage, green chop, or crop by-products. Hay is grass that has been mowed (cut) and cured (dried) for use as livestock feed.
Silage (short for ensilage) or haylage is green forage that has been fermented and stored in a silo or other system that keeps air out. Moldy silage can cause listeriosis or "circling disease" in sheep. The pieces should be chopped smaller for sheep as compared to cattle.
Sometimes, pasture plants are cut, chopped, and brought to the sheep. Fresh harvested forage is called green chop. This "cut-and-carry" system of feeding is common in developing countries, where labor is not a limiting factor. Many types of plants can be cut, chopped, if necessary, and fed to sheep.
Supplementation
Grain is often fed to sheep with higher nutritional needs, such as pregnant ewes during late gestation, ewes nursing two or more lambs, and lambs with the genetic potential for rapid growth. Grain is the seed part of cereal crops such as corn, barley, wheat, and oats. It is not "unnatural" for sheep to eat grain. They have always eaten the seeds of plants. There are microorganisms in the rumen which can digest the starch in grain.
A protein source, such as soybean meal or cottonseed meal is usually added to the grain ration, along with vitamins and minerals to make a 100 percent nutritionally-balanced feed. Unbalanced grain rations can lead to a variety of health concerns.