Intensive rearing of sheep, Is it Viable?

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S

siddharthfarms

Member
Dear Members,

Somehow after a few years into sheep rearing and after a lot of mathematics,we feel that intensive rearing of sheep is not a viable option, for at least looking at the initial costs involved and the reacurring expenditure is also nothing less.For every sheep in maintainance you need 2 to 2.5 kgs of forage every day, maize fodder has 30-35% DM ,350 gms for every kg at semi dent stage.If you are dependent only on Silage you will end up emptying your Silo more often.

Silage is also an expensive option,I suggest silage is best reserved for drier months than through out the year.A silage pit costs you a bomb and a fodder chopper is nothing less than a lakh with the electricals.Any mismanagement of silage can lead to moulds which further leads to the circling disease.

Intensive system needs protein supplementation(GNC + grain / Lurcene) which otherwise in the grazing system ,a sheep gets it from different weeds.

A common caluclation of Rs,5.00/sheep/day expense in intensive system is quite high and only works to fatten lambs for culling.Why do anybody spend so much on maintainance of ewe flock,when they can go good on poor grazing grasses.In fact it is ideal to put the ewes on low plane of nutrition when you are not breeding them,Increase the level of nutrition slowly towards the breeding time for better conception rates .This is called the flushing effect and you save your money too.


And there is an old saying that " irrigated lands are not for rearing sheep". and they can be put to better use. So,I feel that we should concentrate more on sheep/goat for extensive and semi intensive system .and not intensive or 100% stall feeding.Its like advocating a broiler system of rearing with out the broiler chicken.. Either get a broiler chicken and get into the intensive way or some one was suggesting keko goats,they get their weights just on grazing and nothing else.

But today with the scarcity of grazing lands, I would suggest people with good access to grazing lands to get into this type of farming and follow the semi intensive system( grazing plus supplementation)for better results and stable finances.

Either we all are rearing sheep for breeding to be as integrators and provide quality lambs for further rearing or for meat.Either of this is price sensitive and apart from the niche market for supply of rams for breeding or export of meat.Your end user is the farmer himself or the butcher.

Siddharth farms is into sheep rearing for sometime now and these are my personal views out of my experiences in managing the farm,nothing to offend people who advocate intensive system,but only to say " Think before you leap". Any kind of comments and advice is welcome.

Best Regards
Ravi
Siddharthfarms@gmail.com
 

A

arumughams

Member
Dear sir,

Thank you very much for the useful informations you have provided. This is the real use of this forum. It would be nice, people use this forum to share the knowledge like this rather than for advertisements.

Thanks,
A.Saravanan
 

sampadafarms

sampadafarms

Established Member
Sheep farming_Sampada Farms

Dear Mr. Ravi,

I appreciate your views about stall feeding of sheep and its disadvantages. All points and your practical exposure to the industry should be very much considered. Since two years we are providing consultancy services for sheep/goat projects, based on stall feeding the small ruminants on silage. We welcome your comments. Can you put across your experiences and problems you faced and facing for the benefit of farming community. Due to the non availabiltiy of grazing lands, it is very difficult to find free grazing lands especially surroundings of Hyderabad city. Health management is also a task in extensive grazing. Cost of the silage is not less than Rs.6/- per animal/day. It is also costing a lot. In both breeding and fattening business models it is a rope walk. But our clients are managing as the end unit selling price is good and they have their own marketing systems.

Any how, we welcome your views and risks in this systme of stall feeding of animals to fine tune and to find the solutions.

Regards
Raghu Ram
Sampada Farms & Consultants
09848203647
Hyderabad
 
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S

siddharthfarms

Member
Dear Mr.Raghuram

As i put it in my post,i expressed my views totally on my experience in managing my farm. We did find that stall feeding of sheep through out the year is not necessary and is not feasible in all the situations as i have explained for ewes in maintainable .

when you look at our western partners,Many of the sheep growing countries follow the intensive system only for finishing lambs for culling, post weaning or in real snowy winters,that is where silage fits in.

I sincerely doubt if it would work for the breeder units money wise, because you do not need a consistent rich diet for the ewe flock all the time,and you can save some money to be more price competitive in the market .except that someone has an exotic breed and selling at unrealistic prices to fanciers.

but for lamb fattening yes.provided you make proper analysis of what you are feeding and regular culling will give the dressing percentage and the muscle:fat ratio.

Agriculture is a diversified subject and people have a wide variety of options to pursue,If someone is not accessible to grazing lands,they rather look into a different options at least for now,as we do not have the kind of breeds which really responds to the intensive diet. its like putting a country chicken in the broiler system.

The local breeds are programmed genetically to achieve what they doing for years,A good diet and management will naturally bring benefits.But when you really cut open the sheep and look into the mathematics of input Vs output,Its not a healthy picture.

I hope i am clear and please feel free to comment on the above.


Best Regards
Ravi
siddharthfarms@gmail.com
 

A

asadrazvi2000

Senior Member
Dear Ravi and Raghu Bhai,
Thanks for posting your experience and knowledge and I respect both of yours answers.
1st of all the farm owners should take training on Management and housing of Sheep / Goat and should decide which type of practice is more suitable or beneficial to them by doing critical analysis of various scenarios.

This is what I feel and I am sharing my experience on intensive, semi intensive and extensive farming with both of you and with other friends on this website.

Intensive farming is suitable

 for those farms where there are no near by lands for grazing or the owners are more cautious about the health of the exotic breeds and they don’t want to his animals to get mix with the flocks of local farmers and catch various diseases or drink the contaminated water on road side due to in competent grazing staff as commented by Raghu Bhai.

 where the farm owners are having only limited land and they cant get near by land on lease or not allowed for free grazing due to their bad relationship with the neighbors.

 Where the live stock farms are very closed near by villagers who are having crooks or near by forest or presence of irresponsible staff where the owner is 100% sure that if the animals are taken out they can easily stolen by near by villagers who are un employed or eaten by fox or wild dogs or sold by the grazing staff in the market at cheap rate and this staff will always give miss lead them that Goat / Sheep has been eaten by wild dogs or wolfs or it has mixed by mistake in others people flocks by mistake and bring back the animals from their home or relatives if the owner take severe action on them.
 Where the near by land can only be available after harvesting the crops if the owner is only confined land.

Semi Intensive Farming

Apart from Ravi Bhai Benefits on Semi Intensive farming , I like to high light some more benefits which I am knowing and I am always recommending all my customers do semi stall feeding( stall feeding + 3 to 4 hours of Natural Grazing) because

 Most of the farm owners start with low budget or take loan from bank and I don’t want my customers to incur high running cost due to intensive farming and it is my 1st responsibility to reduce the running cost of my clients/ customers as a farm management consultant.

 The animals will get daily good exercise and they will active for mating.

 The fodder from the owner land can also be saved to some extent which can lead to reduction in Running Cost.

 The farm owners of the Goats farms can leave their Goats to graze/browse on the crop residue of near by agriculture farmer when the crop has been harvested. The advantages of this system is that increase in fertility of the land by droppings and urine of these animals, control of wasteful habits, good growth rate, easier management and possible increased crop yields in future. Here the Goat farm owner will get fodder for his goats and agricultural farmer will get fertility in the land by the droppings. If the land and time is more the goat farmer can give some day / night droppings.

 Here the goats are grazed round the year for a few hours daily animals should be given good nutritious fodder which is rich in energy and protein apart from Concentrate. This system of management can be suitable for variable type of climate and small to medium size flock as very few farmers are having animals in thousands.
 

A

antony_pratap

Senior Member
Hi All,
I do agree Intensive stall fed farming of sheep is certainly not a very profitable bet for the very basic and simple reason of 1 kid per lambing, and silage is not again going to be profitable if people are going to using the microorganisms for the fermentation process since it cost a fortune.

Semi intensive method is good, however what should be in the stall will be the good mating Rams, heavily pregnant ewes and up to 1 month old kid. The rest should be grazed ideally sheep farming is better done at places where there is a space for grazing, weeds have a lot of protein content in them and that is why they outgrow crops cause they demand a lot and obviously store a lot. As far as the dry season there again if someone cannot afford silage which can also be prepared with the basic old fashioned way without using microbes, browse your land you will find a lot space in the corner or mid of few crops that is not utilized intensively, plant shrubs like stylos scabra they don’t need much water it grows in the most dry places and they are abundant with protein.

Intensive Stall Fed System is certainly successful with goats and not much with sheep.

This is my Experience.

Thanks,
Antony
 

M

mahadeb

New Member
Hi,All

Thanks to Mr.Ravi, Mr.Raghu, Syedji, & Mr.Anthony for the valuable technical discussion about the intensive rearing of sheep with their experience which is really uplifting the standard of the forum & hope the forum be used for gaining & distributing knowledge for the welfare of the mankind & the forum not only for the commercial advertisers. It would be better to go for intensive rearing after the availability of better breed suitable for it which lacks in our country till date.Also, the consulting farms are trying their best to cover up the lackings with their positive approach & experience.

Thank you All,

Somesh.
 

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