The considerations for growing lambs on pasture are to provide quality forage to allow high enough growth rates to deposit fat and to maintain animal health in regard to minimizing the impact of gastrointestinal parasites. 

You would face the same issue in finishing cattle on a forage only diet.   Consumer taste varies in the degree of finish that is desired on markets lambs.  If you desire a high degree of finish, that will be challenging to achieve on forage only diet.  Grain supplementation will certainly help and remove the risk of poor gain and low finish.    

If a grass fed product is desired, that will take longer and be harder to acheive although not impossible certainly.   The growth rate will be at least 30% less even on the best quality forage.  It is impossible to reach the energy level of grain in forage so there is always a lag in performance on pasture.   If you are fine with that, then just expect low gains and set your expectations accordingly.  Gains on pasture tend to max out at 0.6 lb per day.   Gains on grain will max out closer to 1 lb per day under ideal conditions.  

Genetics are another major consideration.  There is a huge diversity of sheep breeds that vary greatly in size and  therefore also growth rate.   Simple thing to understand is that large mature size breeds grow fast and that smaller ones grow slower.  If you want to produce a 100 lamb for example, that lamb from a large mature size breed will be leaner than that of a smaller mature size breed.  Use this information to choose genetics. 

Animal health can be a challenge with gastrointestinal parasites but if you graze with cattle you will lower the infectivity level of the pasture as the species do not share the same GI parasites. 

You may need to deworm strategically and based on anemia status of the lambs which can be monitored by examining the ocular mucus membranes every couple weeks.  If the capillary bed of the lower conjunctiva becomes relatively pale, it is a sign of anemia and mostly likely a sign of parasitism.  It is also a good idea to monitor for diarrhea as chronic diarrhea can be caused by parasites as well. 

Your pasture management will need to be considered in relation to the gain/performance you seek.   Better performance is realized with careful management to keep pasture in a high quality, vegetative state.  This may require rotational grazing or careful attention to adjusting the stocking rate (mass of animal[s] per unit land) depending of forage growth rate. 

MSU extension offers grazing education programs if you are interested in learning more about grazing management.  



Richard Ehrhardt,

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Richard Ehrhardt,

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