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Small Ruminant Production An Overview
Small Ruminant Production An Overview
Overview
Small ruminant production
• A strong demand for lamb and goat meat has led to
a resurgence of interest in sheep and goat
production
• Small ruminants (sheep and goats) work well for
small acreages or as a supplementary enterprise
with cattle
• Sheep and goats offer many advantages to livestock
farms
• Goal: to learn at least five advantages of small
ruminants and five challenges, and be able to
decide which species to raise in a given situation
Sheep and goats
• Ruminants
• Similar size
• Gestation length
• Similar diets
• Fencing requirements
• Facilities
• Multiple births
Similar advantages
• Small size
• Requires little feed or land
• Prolific and productive
• Strong market demand: good prices
• Useful in vegetation control
– weeds, brush, multiflora rose, invasive weeds,
including sericea lespedeza, kudzu, others
– good companion grazers with cattle; pasture
improvers
Uses of sheep and goats
• Meat (many ethnic groups prefer goat or
lamb, especially for holidays and festivals)
• Milk
• Fiber (wool, mohair, cashmere)
• Weed and brush control
• Skins/pelts/leather
• Pets and hobbies (we might as well admit it!)
Similar problems
• Internal parasites
• May be difficult to contain
• Markets MAY be harder to locate
• Predator problems
• Goats
– Selective
– Prefer to graze taller plants and browse
– Intake drops quickly if forage is too short
– Opportunistic (think of deer)
Chickweed
Wild lettuce
Shepherd’s purse
Pigweed
Multiflora rose Green briar
Black locust
Black locust Paulownia
Mulberry Mimosa
Question:
Goats
Sheep
Cattle
Grass
Small ruminants in combination
with cattle
• Complementary to cattle
• Can add one ewe per cow with no
additional feed costs and no
detrimental effects
• May improve profitability per acre by
25% over cattle alone
Multispecies grazing – benefits to
sustainability
• Maximize the use of resources (forage, labor,
facilities)
• Improve pastures by
– encouraging diversity of plants
– reducing clumps
– controlling weeds and brush
– reducing parasite infestations on pastures
Multispecies grazing – benefits to
sustainability
• Meat production per species and per acre is higher
• Ratios
– dependent on type of forages available
– 1:1 to use extra weeds
– 6:1 (ewes to cows) to maximize pounds
of meat per acre
Stocking rate
Pasture type Cows Sheep Goats Cows + goats
Brush 1-3/acre
maintenance
• Order
– Graze in a mob, or
– Cattle first to use taller, coarser growth, sheep
or goats to harvest weeds cattle rejected; or
– Lambs, kids and calves to select the best,
ewes, does and cows to clean up; or
– Lambs and ewes followed by dry cows to
utilize rejected forage
Must match nutrition to
production stage
Recommendation: 1 to 2 goats per head of cattle
Multispecies grazing – management
concerns
• Grazing height preferred for sheep: begin at
6-8 inches and move when grazed down to
2.5 to 4 inches
Caution!
Avoid over-grazing. Sheep can graze very
close to the ground. Management is
crucial.
Grazing management
• Question: what are two reasons to avoid
grazing close to the ground?
AVAILABLE FORAGE
Excellent forage management will pay
dividends in lowered production costs and
increased gains and improved health. Daily
intake is most critical!
Production stage:
• To lower costs, try to match needs of the
animal to the production of the forage.
• Over-feeding is expensive and counter-
productive; fat ewes and does do not do well
at breeding or lambing time.
• Under-feeding leads to low birth weights and
poor milk supplies.
Major considerations for
grazing sheep
Must match nutrition to production stage.
Major considerations
Production stage:
Breeding--flush with better nutrition prior to
turning in ram or buck and for several weeks
afterward
Major considerations
Production stage:
Early gestation--low requirements; fair to good
pasture (15 weeks from breeding)
2) Production costs
• Keep feed costs low by using
forages
• Reduce vet costs through preventive
care; have a good working
relationship with a veterinarian
• Need good nutrition for productive
animals; over-feeding is wasteful and
expensive
Cost of production, reproductive
performance, and profitability
80% 90% 100% 125% 150% 200%
Kidding
percentage
Doe cost
($/head/year)
4) Days to market
• Affects feed costs and efficiency
• Labor costs
• Depends on genetic capability and
nutritional resources
• Weather influences
• Target weights depend on buyer
Advantages of direct marketing
• No transport cost
• No shrink
• Less stress for animals
• Seller sets price
• No commission, yardage, etc.
• Makes connections with buyers
• May be more convenient
• Buyer pays with cash on the spot
Disadvantages of direct marketing
• May be inconvenient (drop-ins)
• May be time-consuming
• Seller must be able to bargain
• Buyer may not be prepared to haul
• Buyer may want to slaughter at farm
Factors affecting profitability
5) WEANING PERCENTAGE
• Influenced by lambing percentage
• fertility
season
flushing
• newborn lamb survivability
• Influenced by flock health
• nutrition
• predator control
• preventative health care
Effect of Weaning Percentage on
Potential Income*
Pounds lamb sold per ewe 1
Price/
Pound 100 140 160 180
.90 $90 $126 $144 $162
1.00 100 140 160 180
1.10 110 154 176 198
1.20 120 168 192 216
1.30 130 182 208 234
1
Assumes 100 pound average selling weight
*
From <http://www.ces.uga.edu/pubcd/b879-w.htm> page 10.
Cost of production, reproductive
performance, and profitability
Doe cost
($/head/year) 80% 90% 100% 125% 150% 200%
30 0.83 0.74 0.67 0.53 0.44 0.30
35 0.97 0.86 0.78 0.62 0.52 0.39
40 1.11 0.99 0.89 0.71 0.59 0.44
45 1.25 1.11 1.00 0.80 0.67 0.50
50 1.39 1.23 1.11 0.89 0.74 0.56
60 1.67 1.48 1.33 1.07 0.89 0.67
Brush 1-3/acre
maintenance
Economic comparison
• Cattle • Goats
– 1 cow/calf unit/3 acres – 8 goat/kid units/3 acres
– 95% calf crop – 150% kid crop
– 500 lb. weaning weight – 60 lb. weaning weight
– 475 lb. weaned/3 acres – 720 lbs. weaned/3 acre
– 158.3 lbs./acre – 240 lbs./acre
Goats:
• Are similar to sheep in many ways
• Offer pasture improvement services
• Are a good companion enterprise to cattle,
increasing profits by increasing pounds of
meat produced per acre
• Can be profitable if costs are kept low and
animals are prolific
Questions?
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