Supplementation: How Much? How Often?
I always find humor in animals that chase the feed truck down the road even after supplement is being poured on the ground! What makes them think they should keep chasing the truck for feed when there is plenty of feed put out for them?
Last month, I discussed different types of supplemental feeds for sheep and goats. Hopefully, you found enough information there to help you decide what type of supplement you are going to feed. Or you may have decided your flock/herd does not need supplemental feed.
As a recap, pelleted feeds are typically the most well rounded feed. They are safe to feed and provide a balanced diet. They are also convenient to purchase and deliver, but they tend to be one of the more expensive supplementation options. Grains and by-products are more inexpensive options but aren’t as well balanced for energy, protein, vitamins, and minerals.
So, how to decide on how much to feed? Remember my opening line from last month, “ignorance is bliss.” Yeah, that kinda applies here too. We don’t know for sure, we can make an educated guess.
In general, most people supplement adult sheep or goats with around a ½ pound per head per day. To decide if we need to supplement more or less, we need to decide if we are supplementing to make up for poor quality pasture, or to improve the body condition score of the sheep, or to keep the animals gentle enough to follow the truck (or ATV).
Total dietary intake is normally around 4 pounds per day. So, feeding 1 pound per day of supplement equates to 25 percent of the total diet. At this level or higher, the animals are likely substituting the supplement for pasture forage. This is not an ideal situation because supplemental feed is expensive compared pasture. However, high level of supplementations may be needed by animals that in poor condition prior to or just after lambing/kidding. On the other hand, supplementing ¼ pound per animal equates to around 6.25 percent of the total diet. At this low a level, the supplement isn’t likely to can have an overall impact on their health; especially if they burn extra calories chasing the truck to get it.
If you are supplementing to keep them gentle, there is no scientific rational on how much to feed, but it’s usually just enough so they come to feed!
If you are supplementing to improve body condition, there is a more scientific approach. For most sheep and goats, approximately 15 pounds of body weight equates to a body condition score. So, if we have animals in 2.5 body condition score and we need to get them to 3.5 body condition, they need to gain 15 pounds in body weight. If we assume 50 percent of the supplement will result in weight gain, then the animals would need to be supplemented 30 pounds of feed per animal to increase 1 body condition score. Of course, the 30 pounds of feed needs to be spread out over a few weeks to a few months. This only works if the animals are on a basal diet that allows them to maintain their current body weight.
If you are supplementing to make up for poor pastures or hay, then we need to either observe animals or test forages. Testing forages in the pasture can be useful information; however, we rarely know the diet composition and daily intake to define an exact supplementation strategy. Therefore, we are still guessing. So I like to observe the animals by checking both their condition and their fecal composition. If they are producing small hard pellets, they are likely not getting enough feed from the pasture. Supplemental feeding should increase total intake and diet quality, therefore, fecal pellets should increase in size and start to soften. Large soft fecal pellets indicate a maintenance diet or slightly above maintenance diet. Sheep or goats that deposit clumps of pellets are often gaining weight. Whereas, loose runny diarrhea is a sign of too much grain or some other digestive upset. In most cases, supplemental feeding of 1/3 to 2/3 pound per day will accomplish the desired goal of increasing weight gain and/or improving diet quality.
Now a decision needs to be made on how often to supplement. Daily supplementation is ideal because it allows for smaller amounts to be fed that do not create dietary imbalances that disrupt grazing. Unfortunately, daily supplementation can be impossible or impractical. Feeding a couple times per week has been shown to be effective. Under this regime, animals require 2 to 3 times the rate of feed compared to a daily supplementation strategy. Some feeds like corn that are high in starch should not be fed at rates greater than 1 pound per head per day, until the animals have been adapted to the diet. Other feeds, such as cottonseed, have too high a concentration of oils that will limit how much the animals will eat on a daily basis.
In summary, supplementation strategies should be determined based on a several questions. Do my animals need supplemental feed? What supplement fits my flock/herd management? How much and how often should I supplement? Once a supplementation plan has been made, I encourage you to contact an experienced rancher, veterinarian, and/or nutritionist for their input. Surround yourself with smart people and complicated decisions can become easy.
Texas A&M AgriLife Extension is always happy to help farmers and ranchers answer questions. Agents are located in most all counties in Texas to help. To provide feedback on this article or request topics for future articles, contact me at reid.redden@ag.tamu.edu or 325-653-4576.