Almost all types of feed elements can be used as sheep feed. Because among all the domestic animal, sheep is the only animal which can survive by eating any types of feed.
They can consume low quality leaves while there is scarcity of food. Even they can survive by eating only corn. For example, you can feed only corn and grainy feed to the meat productive sheep.
But sheep prefer grasses than grainy feed. They love to grazing than consuming served grasses and corn. Among the livestock sheep comparatively consume more leaves and grasses by grazing than other animal.
So, for well production from sheep they have to graze in the field all time. They like thin grasses most than thick and long grasses. They do not look for variety of feed like goat. They even eat leftovers feed.
Food management of sheep is like of goat. Sheep needs more fiber in feed than grainy feed. Some farmer raise sheep only by feeding them the feed only containing fiber.[1]
They like different types of fresh grasses, like caupi, nepeyar, other small grass, soybean, pea, pulse, gram etc. You can feed those fresh feed or by drying in the sun. Drying sheep feed contain more vitamin A.
Different types of cake contain high quality protein. Among the granule feed they like wheat, barley, maize, millet etc. There is no need to add feed additives in their feed.
Newly born baby sheep needs their mother milk for a certain period according to their body weight. Baby sheep needs their mother milk like goat until they reach 4-5 kg weight. After that they should graze in the field with their mother and collect feed by themselves.
Mother sheep needs more granule feed than pregnant sheep. But provide the sheep less granule feed than leaves or grasses. In commercial sheep farming start feeding the pregnant sheep granule feed before one month of their delivery.
Serve them 200-250 gram granule feed daily with their regular feed. Keep dry or fresh grasses with some corn in the annual feed chart of a female sheep. Feed chart of meat productive, pregnant and mother sheep are shown below.
Chart A: Food For Meat Sheep
| Elements | Percentage |
| Maize Powder | 40 |
| Dried Molasses | 5 |
| Wheat Roughage | 10 |
| Cake | 9 |
| Dried Grasses | 36 |
Chart B: Food For Pregnant Sheep
| Elements | Percentage |
| Barley | 50 |
| Maize Dried Molasses Soybean Cake | 5-10 |
| Maize Cylage | 20-30 |
| Dried Grasses | 20 |
Chart C: Food For Mother Sheep
| Elements | Percentage |
| Dried Grasses | 80 |
| Barley (60%) Maize (25%) Wheat Roughage (025%) | 20 |
Mix the ingredients of granule feed well before feeding the sheep. Feed them fresh grasses according to their demand. Add sufficient salt and minerals in their feed.
