Teaching Lambs to Eat Anything - The Gastrointestinal Benefits of Multi-family Pasture

Teaching Lambs to Eat Anything

 

 

Healthy Immunity and Gut Biome of Sheep 

One of the philosophies that sets us apart from many other farms is that we breed our sheep to eat just about anything. We do this for several reasons - to keep down the weeds we don't want to encourage, to give the sheep a wide variety to eat and to improve their gut bacteria and therefore overall health by giving them a varied diet. Add to this our pasture planting plan of 30+ species of grasses, legumes and herbs and you get VERY healthy lambs. Incidentally, it's not enough to plant multi-species of plants, they must also be of different families. For instance, chicory and clover, which have very deep roots. These are legumes and also help with water retention, enabling the pasture to survive drier periods better. Drought resistance is a major issue for Australian farmers.

 

The lambs in the above photo are eating reeds, (called 'sags' here in Tassie), even rotting horrible looking ones! They love them. They also eat tender thistle leaves and blackberry, which is a significant, invasive weed in this country. We have actually wiped out whole sections of blackberry infested land here by using our sheep, to trample and eat it down to nothing. We also spray it with Nutrisoilbiologicalsolution (a vermicompost product) which boosts the plant's growth, making it taste sweeter, which encourages the sheep to eat it. Boosting the growth of blackberry does sound counterproductive, but when it tastes yummy, it will get eaten!

 

Pasture hygiene and Parasite Resistance

Good animal husbandry is founded upon good land management and the crucial aspect here is pasture hygiene. One of the huge bonuses of a varied diet, including anthelmintics, (natural worming plants) is that our sheep don't require worming as often. We only use worming medicines when we see evidence that it is needed, not as a regular dosage. Some sheep seem naturally immune to the effects of gastrointestinal worms. This propensity is increased by giving them natural anthelmintics in the form of herbs such as chicory and trees such as the native Tasmanian Blackwood. We use other types of grasses too, sourced from local and overseas. The disadvantages of constantly using medicines to control worms is that they build up a resistance. And the effects of these medicines upon the good worms in the soil and other insects such as dung beetles is a concern. We make sure that for the 24hours after worm medicine is given, the sheep are in a holding area which is not used for pasture. That way we minimise the impact upon the helpful insects in our ecosystem.

"Anthelmintic plants - chicory, sainfoin and birdsfoot trefoil - provide alternative solutions to control parasites in livestock and have been the subject of studies in two successive EU projects ‘Healthy Hay’ and ‘LegumePlus.’ Some plants such as sainfoin and birdsfoot trefoil contain condensed tannins in their leaves and stems. These can reduce worm burdens. In the last decade there has been considerable scientific progress in understanding the effect these tannins have on livestock." - cotswold grass seeds

 

A significant aspect for meat sheep is that if they are not loaded with worms, they thrive better and in turn provide meat that is super healthy for humans to consume. The result is meat that tastes very different - is extremely tender and has more healthy brown fat, which has a lower melting point. And of course, the most important point is that the sheep have a healthy, happy life whilst they are with us.