Thanks Kathleen and Nancy,
I have never experienced this before either. So it was a surprise to
me, and also to my friend with the fall lambs.
Mary
At 03:05 AM 4/5/2013, you wrote:
I rotate my American Blackbelly ewes to give birth every 8 mos. so I've had
lambs born at different times of the year. Since we're in Southern
California, we don't get much grass growth so my sheep are on orchard grass
hay or orchard/mix hay year round. I give my ewes grain (w/ a selenium
supplement) the last month of their pregnancy & continue til 2 mos. post
lambing so both the ewes & their lambs (en utero & through suckling) get
the benefits of grain during that time. None of my sheep, including the
lambs, have ever gotten "hay belly".
Kathleen Wallis
On Thu, Apr 4, 2013 at 9:07 PM, Nancy Johnson <imgr8a...@comcast.net> wrote:
> In the horse world a hay belly is when a horse is eating too much hay and
> getting fat. We say they have a hay belly and they need to lose weight.
> It wasn't because they were getting poor quality hay. At the moment, my
> little mule has a little bit of a hay belly. He eats pretty fast and can
> put away a lot before it runs out.
>
> My sheep and lambs get a combination of hay and feed. I give them pretty
> much as much hay as they can eat and supplement with feed. None of my
> sheep have fat bellies.
>
> Nancy
>
> On Apr 4, 2013, at 5:21 PM, Mary Swindell wrote:
>
> > Someone asked me if they should be worried that their November lambs
> have fat bellies. These lambs are healthy otherwise, and are not carrying
> a worm load, coccidiosis, or any other known problem.
> >
> > I had a similar experience this fall and winter with my adult ewes which
> had fat bellies. They were not pregnant at the time, just fat in the
> tummy. My vet (who deals with cattle as well as sheep), as well as a
> couple of friends who raise cattle, said my ewes looked like they had "hay
> belly". They said that in cattle, this condition results from the animals
> being fed a poor quality forage. They said it is not serious, it is that
> they fill up on the poor quality bulk trying to get enough nutrition when
> better forage is not available.
> >
> > Usually, my ewes spend the entire summer and fall eating grass in the
> pasture. But due to the extreme drought this past summer, they had to eat
> hay (big round bales of grass hay) all summer and fall. In other words,
> they never came off hay the entire year. They all seem fine now. They
> were bred in October and they lambed in March, with no apparent problems.
> >
> > But my friend has lambs who are exhibiting the same signs of "hay
> belly". They were born in November, and would have been weaned in about
> February. So they've spent their first two months of post-weaning growth
> eating grass hay, rather than spring pasture, as most spring-born lambs
> would eat.
> >
> > I got to thinking: We hair sheep breeders probably have more evidence
> of the difference between fall-born lambs and spring-born lambs, than
> breeders of wooly breeds because our sheep can breed and lamb year-round.
> So we would be better able to compare the growth of young fall lambs (fed
> mostly on hay after weaning), to the growth of young spring lambs (fed
> mostly on grass after weaning) than most breeders of wool sheep.
> >
> > Which brings me to my question: Have any of you who raise both
> spring-born lambs and fall born lambs noticed any difference in the growth
> patterns of your fall lambs, such as a fat belly? Do you think this might
> be what the cattle people call "hay belly", and might be due to being
> weaned onto dry hay forage rather than grass pasture? What is your opinion
> of this -- are there long term effects of this condition, and have you
> observed that these fall fat-bellied lambs grow out of the condition?
> >
> > Your thoughts on this matter are really appreciated!
> >
> > Sincerely,
> > Mary Swindell
> >
> > _______________________________________________
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>
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