Shepherds: Grazing Way to Beat High Feed Costs

By Jane Fyksen Crops Editor
Thursday, September 18, 2008 9:50 AM CDT

Dan Morrical

Few in the sheep industry will dispute that it’s downright difficult to make adequate profits these days n especially feeding corn. “Our bottom line has shrunk,” says Dan Morrical, Iowa State University sheep specialist.

“Is Grazing the Way to Beat High Feed Costs?” was Morrical’s topic recently at Spooner Sheep Day at the Spooner Ag Research Station. The answer is a definite “yes.”

Sheep producers toying with the idea of going to grazing need to change their “mindset,” says Morrical. “Maximum number, maximum growth and maximum selling price are no longer the measuring sticks for your operation,” he stresses. “Managing the forage resource to generate the maximum animal output per acre per year is the critical concept.”

“One needs to become a forage producer n not a sheep producer,” he says. Sheep are simply the specie of choice to harvest your forage.

Rotational grazing is a “learned skill,” he said. “The sheep won’t grow as fast n period.” The potential for lamb losses is greater. When you’re no longer barn lambing, predators become an issue, and death loss can quickly mount if cold rain hits during May lambing and Mother Nature refuses to shut off the faucet.

Rotationally grazing provides adequate rest to maintain or establish a legume component in the sward. You’re now asking sheep to milk or gain on forage alone; quality is critical n even, he notes for “supporting the immune system,” especially as it relates to parasite tolerance. “Parasitism problems are increase many fold with lactating ewes compared to dry ewes on the same pasture. I feel that part of this is the immune incompetence of nutrient-deficient diets and the fact that young lambs may be shedding huge numbers of eggs,” says Morrical.

Once you make the switch to grazing, Morrical thinks it takes 3 to 5 years to “get your management right” and for pasture stands to really thicken up. If you’re going to make the commitment, “Let’s make it long term,” he says. The longer you stick with the grazing n and sound grazing principles - the better your pastures will become.

Graziers either need to achieve n and keep n legumes in their pastures to improve the protein balance of lactating ewes and feeder lambs or supplement. He suggests exploring the idea of self-feeding soybean hulls or beet pulp with distillers grains so as not to “create chaos and mismothering or trampling” as can happen when they’re limit-fed.

Finishing lambs on grass is a “very challenging endeavor to undertake,” Morrical admits of trying for the 140-pound market lambs of the feedlot industry. Heavy feeders or lightweight market lambs are easier to produce on pasture. From his experience, lambs will gain about a quarter-pound a day on cool-season grasses.

“As lambs get older and heavier, they may have improved gain potential as they can handle bulkier rations better, so the best strategy for maximizing lamb gains is to leave lambs on the ewes for at least 90 days or longer,” he suggests.

Once lambs are weaned, they can head to the drylot for finishing or continue grazing. Morrical says hayfield regrowth is a good spot for them, as it won’t be contaminated with parasites. Lambs need to be dewormed at weaning and moved to clean forage.

Getting lambs “bunk broke” and started on feed isn’t easy, he continues. “They do not like dry hay and cannot handle much grain. Our best experience at ISU is to put lambs on full feed of soybean hulls.” While currently very expensive, soy hulls are “very safe and palatable.” Lambs also need Clostridium perfringens Type D while still nursing and a second at weaning to reduce the risk of enterotoxaemia in the transition to a grain diet.

Producers who decide to leave weaned lambs on pasture need to decide whether or not to supplement extra energy at 0.5 percent to 2 percent of lamb bodyweight. At the low end you’re mostly getting lambs bunk broke and not generating much in terms of increasing their gains. At the high rate, they’re eating over half their daily intake as concentrate. “The feed conversion on this high supplementation is generally poor at 7 to 1 or greater,” he admits, noting it will make it more likely that lambs will be market ready at the end of the grazing season.

The other approach is to self-feed a finisher ration on pasture “and take whatever grass gain you get as a bonus,” says Morrical, mentioning that work done at the University of Kentucky found this system provided the lowest cost of grain. (However, that work was done in the days of low feed costs and minimal pasture costs.)

Morrical says dry distillers grain “makes the most sense” when using small amounts of feed to improve the protein status of the lambs. It currently provides the cheapest cost per pound of protein. Corn gluten is similar in cost per unit of protein but less palatable. Shepherds hoping to improve the protein status need to think energy intake and microbial protein yield. Soybean hulas are the “safest” and “maybe the most economical” way to getting extra energy into lambs.

If forage quality is good, then protein shouldn’t be an issue in terms of adequate degradable intake protein, he adds.

One other way of using more forage to finish lambs is to incorporate summer annuals and “catch crops” into the system. Such planted acres provide lots of yield with minimal parasite risk. Options include purple top turnips and newer varieties of brassicas with improved grazing qualities. Sorghum-sudan provides “tons of feed” (but lower quality). Dwarf pearl millet doesn’t yield as well but neither does it have the prussic acid risk. Shorter and finer stemmed, lambs more readily eat it. Morrical says brown midrib forage sorghum is an energy-dense annual that works very well for grazing lambs or ewes and their lambs mid-summer. Double cropping after oats might be an option for these.

“Harvesting the oats or winter annual as hay might also be a possible double-crop system that allows for planting the catch crops earlier,” he notes, conceding that “although the catch crops can provide lots of tonnage, with increased fuel and fertilizer costs, cheap feed may not be as cheap as we are used to.”

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