posted 5 months ago
Sheep (and goats and cows) are ruminant animals, and their digestive systems are designed to digest green forage - grass, clover, and other forbs, ideally fresh or at least dried (as hay). Feeding supplemental grain is generally possible, and done in controlled quantities (especially in commercial operations) to "improve" the quantity of meat/milk produced. Feed them too much and it will ferment in the rumen and basically kill them by alcohol poisoning. There are plenty of resources out there (including the Feeds and Feeding book Judy referenced) if you want to go that route.
I raise sheep, for the principal reason that they will take something I have plenty of (grass and clover and burdock and the rest) and turn it into something I need more of (meat), with minimal inputs outside of a mineral supplement and grazing management. They are particularly suited to gathering their own food, and spreading fertilizer in their wake. When that's the starting point, I think it's important to consider the labor/energy input of anything beyond pasture grazing, and whether it is providing you with an appropriate return. Even hay requires mowing and raking and baling (or stacking) and storage, and your labor/mechanical/chemical inputs are only going to up from there depending on what you're looking at. Dried grains typically require plowing and harrowing and planting and fertilizing and cultivating and cutting and threshing and drying and storing and grinding and mixing before they get to the animal...
"All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us." ~ Tolkien
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