Ewes need extra care; here’s how to provide it

In order to produce healthy offspring that will grow quickly and boost your income, you need to ensure that the females receive the right nutrition.

Asingle female animal can contribute many thousands of rand to your farming enterprise. A good ewe can produce six lambs in her lifetime; at R2 000 each, this amounts to R12 000. You will also shear her wool each year; if you receive R300 per shearing over six years, you will earn R1 800 over this period. Finally, when the ewe is sold one day as a meat animal, you might obtain a further R1 800, bringing the total income obtained from the ewe to R15 600.

If you add what her offspring can earn for you from further breeding and wool shearing, the total value rises to more than R40 000!

Put another way, if you want to be a profitable farmer, you need to achieve the highest possible conception and weaning rates. To do this, follow these three key steps:

• Stick to your yearly vaccination and dipping/dosing programme;

• Ensure that your animals have access to clean water;

• Supply the females with extra nutrition in the form of energy, minerals, protein and vitamins while they are in-lamb or lactating.

an affordable feed supplement

Dryland crops such as oats can help produce winter feed for your breeding animals. If you cannot produce such crops, mix your own feed ration; this will be cheaper than premixed feed. I’ve found the following recipe helpful as a feed supplement for in-lamb and suckling mothers. Most of the ingredients are available at your local farmer’s co-op or livestock feed merchant:

Mix one 25kg-bag of milled lucerne (a full bag) with 10kg of crushed maize and 10kg of maize germ meal (about a quarter bag of each). During the first week, give each ewe 200g a day; thereafter, give her between 400g and 500g a day (the amount held in a 1ℓ-container full). Give your cows about 5kg of the mixture each a day. If you don’t have the money to provide this amount daily, feed it to the animals at least every second or third day.

Place the feed in clean troughs and make certain it doesn’t get wet or spoilt when the animals urinate or defecate.

• Trace elements

Trace elements such as manganese, iodine and zinc play an important role in gestation. To make sure the animals receive enough of these, give them a product such as Embamin TE. This can be provided as an oral drench/dose about four times a year.

Take care to read the instructions properly. If in doubt, ask for help on how to mix the supplement with water when you buy the product.

• Energy and protein

For added energy and protein, purchase one ‘multi’ lick block for every 10 to 15 sheep or goats, and one block for every five to eight cows. Ensure that the animals have constant access to clean drinking water, as some blocks contain salt, making the animals thirsty.

Place each block in an open area so that all the animals can get to them easily; avoid kraal corners and cramped areas.

if you allow overgrazing, you’ll have to spend more and more money on feed

Supplements should not replace the natural grazing that your animals eat. As a farmer or a community, ensure that certain grazing areas are rested, particularly during the winter months.

create ‘camps’ without fencing

If your land doesn’t have camps, use features such as dams and trees as markers to create separate grazing areas. Keep all your livestock in a particular area for a few weeks, making sure that they don’t stray. When the grass has been grazed quite short, move the animals to the next ‘camp’.

Most grasses can recover in eight to 10 weeks during the rainy season. If your animals constantly graze all the areas, the grass will not have a chance to recover, the good grass will die off, and you will end up with overgrazed veld. Not only will your animals suffer, you’ll need to spend more and more money on feed!