What type of hay is best for sheep?

grass hay
Hay for Sheep Sheep, like goats, prefer fine, leafy hay and will not eat coarse hay. Immature grass hay or leafy alfalfa is usually the best feed for sheep. Mature sheep can get by on good-quality grass hay, but lambs do better with a legume—harvested while still growing so that it has finer stems.

Do sheep like fescue grass?

According to the description of the grass, meadow fescue doesn’t mind wet feet. That turned out to be true. This grass is well liked by the sheep.

Is fescue grass good for livestock?

One is forage quality. While fescue out-produces many other grasses, it is somewhat coarser. However, for cow-calf production, fescue can almost be considered ideal. Cows do not need to gain appreciable weight, and a grass that provides large amounts of forage most of the year is just what is needed.

What hay can sheep eat?

Sheep prefer fine, leafy hay and will not eat coarse hay. Immature grass hay or leafy alfalfa is usually the best feed for sheep. Mature sheep can eat good-quality grass hay, but lambs do better with a legume that has been harvested while growing, allowing for finer stems.

What hay do sheep eat?

Nutritional value of hay

Hay Digestibility % Metabolisable energy MJ/kg
Lucerne 45-55 8-9
Sorghum 45-55 7.5
Grass from 40-60%
– young leafy 9

How do you grow sheep fescue?

Planting: Sheep fescue seed should be planted with a drill at a depth of 1/4 inch or less. The single species seeding rate is 4 pounds Pure Live Seed (PLS) per acre or about 60 PLS per square foot (Ogle et al., 2009). If used as a component of a mix, adjust to percent of mix desired.

When should I cut fescue hay?

Cutting at the late-boot stage produces high-quality hay. But when the plant reaches the seed stage, protein can gradually drop by 50 percent. “I would expect that everyone knows that early-cut tall fescue hay is better than late-cut tall fescue,” says Bates.

What causes Fescue toxicosis?

Equine fescue toxicosis is caused when pregnant mares eat tall fescue that is infected with an endophyte fungus, Acremonium coenephialum . Both the mare and the foal can be affected when the mare eats endophyte-infected fescue.

Is fescue bad for animals?

About 8.5 million head of cattle graze on fescue, but the endophyte fungus causes fescue toxicity, diminishing growth, health and reproduction in cattle as well as horses and sheep by squeezing off the blood supply to the extremities.

What exactly is fescue Hay?

Fescue is a variety of grass that is often grown as a hay crop in various parts of the United States. The relative merits of fescue as a hay crop are debated among farmers due to the number of challenges that the crop presents. If fescue is not managed properly, the quality of the crop declines significantly.

Can horses eat fescue Hay?

Horses typically eat hay that’s grown locally, which means their options are often restricted to what grows best in their area. While alfalfa is considered an ideal hay, horses can also eat timothy, clover and tall fescue hays as well as mixtures of these hays.

Can goats eat fescue Hay?

Do not feed any hay that has toxic fescue seed in it. The toxic fungus can pass through the digestive tract of goats and infect clean fields if the goats eat any contaminated fescue seed. For forty years we had over-seeded our pastures with ladino or regal varieties of white clover.

What is to seed with fescue?

Creeping Red Fescue Seeding: Seeding with red fescue is best done in the fall and is usually seeded with bluegrass or perennial rye grass . A complete lawn of red fescue alone requires approximately 4 lb per 1000 sq. Ft. applied in the spring or fall.