Well, I have seen a number of things and just wonder if what I am doing is ok. I started them out on 15% lamb grower. I was giving them 4# per day. They seem big and healthy.

The lady that I bought them from said that I should cut back to 2#per day and switch to straight oats, with a little molasses to get them to eat it.

I read the thread about giving too much molasses, when I had them mix it at the feed store I put 5#molasses to 150# oats. It seems to be enough to give it some flavor, they like it ok.

Does this sound alright? Do I add a little corn in the winter when it gets cold, or before lambing, early pregnancy? I will be breeding them in November.

Thanks, Tami in WI

-- Tami Bowser (windridg@chorus.net), August 24, 2000

Answers

I've been raising sheep for a few years now. I just feed corn and oats and my lambs are doing just fine from mothers on that diet. I thought the lamb grower pellets were just too darned expensive! I don't give them any molasses, but they get sheep mineral free choice. I've got twenty six of them in a pen that gets three and a half big coffee cans (used to be three pound size - I think it's less now) of whole corn and three and a half of oats. I feed them a bale a day of grassy hay. It seems heavy on grain to me, but they waste the hay if I give them more than that. If you still want them to have molasses I know that Kent feeds does a tub of lickable sweet mineral that some shepherds around here swear by. I haven't tried it yet, last I checked it runs between 15 and 20 bucks a tub.

Where in Wisconsin are you? I'd love to talk sheep with a "local".

TTYS Karen

-- Karen Raymond (WI) (KRWizWork@yahoo.com), August 29, 2000.