Ewes happily munch Spring grass after a long winter of boring old hay.
The sheep are now officially “on pasture” after a week of carefully reacquainting them to the green stuff. It takes a little while to get their rumens adjusted to rich, wet feed after 6 months of eating dry hay. Too much too soon can cause the sheep to “bloat” and that’s a ba-a-ad thing…can be fatal. So…we’re very careful and give them limited access to start. And at night, they’re brought back to the winter paddock where there’s always a fresh pan of baking soda for them to snack on. The baking soda will calm an overactive ruman. When they’re in the paddock, we’re better able to observe them and would be more likely to catch a problem early on when it’s easier to fix.
A big pan of baking soda for dessert!
In the morning, we feed them hay before heading out to the pasture so they’re not inclined to overeat. By about the fourth day of these exercises, they flatly refuse to eat any hay we put out for them…even the choicest, soft, 2nd cutting will sit in the feeder untouched. Forget what you may have heard…sheep are not stupid!
