Wintering Sheep For $2.20 Per Month

The purpose of this article is to advocate the value of turnips for ovine grazing to those folks willing to read on. It describes how in 2001/2002 I wintered sheep for a monthly cost of $2.20 each on well-fertilized turnip and ryegrass pasture with no hay or feed. Unfortunately it is lengthy to read and my experiences won't be applicable to everyone.

The estimates of forage production, sheep weights, and weight gain are just that -- estimates. However, my total wintering cost of $2.20 per month per sheep is a Fact not affected by any errors of estimation.

Ryegrass is the pasture crop of choice for wintering stock in the Gulf South. However, 50 pounds of Purple Top Turnip seed that cost $44.50 produced much more grazing during the period of October 24, 2001, through February 18, 2002, than did 1700 pounds of Jackson Ryegrass seed that cost $663.00. The grazing stock was 230 hair sheep of assorted age and size.

The turnips and ryegrass were planted together on the same 34 acres of relatively well-prepared seedbed on September 15, 2001.

October 24, 2001, is the date the ryegrass and turnips were "ready" to start grazing; and February 18, 2002, is the date when the ryegrass was deemed essentially grazed away and the weather favorable for refertilization of the ryegrass due to the apparent arrival of spring.

Although the ryegrass was in fairly short supply by February 18, 2002, lots of turnip roots remained in prime edible condition so the grazing continued. Lambing had begun on February 1, 2002.

I read that there are 167,200 turnip seed per pound. Assuming 70% of them sprout, survive, grow, and are grazed; this would be 5,852,000 plants on 34 acres or 3.96 plants per square foot. Visual inspection confirmed this. Also assume an average weight for tops and roots of one half pound at the time of consumption (the consumed plant weight averaged over 4 months of grazing --- some weighed an ounce when grazed on October 24, 2001, and many weighed 2-3 pounds by Christmas 2001). Finally assume an average 85% moisture content.

These assumptions indicate that the turnip production was 12,909 pounds of dry matter per acre. I suspect that this is 3-4 times the ryegrass production for the same period. Ryegrass growth on my farm was probably the best ever in September and October, but well below normal in Nov/Dec/Jan/Feb.

The seed and fertilizer costs for these 118 days of grazing were $1985.91. That amounts to $2.20 per sheep per 30-day month. Again, no hay or feed was used.

If the 230 sheep averaged 130 pounds at the mid point of this grazing period, the cost would be $0.0005628 per pound per day. In bovine terms this would be $16.88 for a 1000 pound cow for a month. This seems kind of high to me. However, the next 90 days of grazing will be less expensive since the ryegrass will be vigorously resurrected by the February 18, 2002, addition of $18.36 per acre of nitrogen.

I thought I'd estimate the cost of gain. I guessed that each of the 230 sheep gained 25 pounds during these 118 days. This is 0.21 pounds per day (ppd). Many of these gains were associated with gestational development. This would be a flock total gain of 5,750 pounds at a cost of 35 cents spent for seed and fertilizer per pound gained. The pounds per acre (ppa) of gain would be 169.

This seems very high in view of the fact that we had four weaned bull calves on 2.5 acres of ryegrass in 1997/98 that gained 4.03 ppd each (916 ppa) in 142 days at a total cost of 12 cents per pound of gain. The calves also had no hay or grain.

I assume the "high" cost of gain is because wintering a lot of pregnant ewes is not a weight gain project, and that a pound of fetal development growth is probably a lot less forage efficient than a pound of juvenile meat/bone/fat growth.

The stocking rate was also calculated. 230 sheep averaging 130 pounds on 34 acres is 879 pounds of stock per acre. By comparison, when we were doing the LSU beef grazing project, we liked to start with a stocking rate of no more than 600 ppa and try to gain at least 600 ppa in five months.

There was surprisingly little waste or spoilage of turnip top or root. Turnips are apparently "good food" since the ewes are mostly very fat after lambing. I intend to plant turnips on this same acreage as long as possible -- so please send some plant disease/pest experts my way. This fall I will experiment with rutabagas as well. Anyone want to recommend an unrelated crop with similar productivity?

Incidentally, I no longer recommend turnips in ryegrass for bovines (I used to plant 0.2 ppa of seed), because a few cow turnip-fanatics will destroy the ryegrass by trampling in search of turnips. There was no such destruction with the 230 sheep (and one goat and one llama).

The mundane details are:

The precipitation record shown above is substantially incomplete. I only record rainfall when it's good news (after fertilization), or bad news (more than 10 inches).

Frank Boggs, Jr. February 2002

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