Sheep Nutrition

The principles of nutrition and nutritional management of grazing sheep are discussed in terms of feeding for maintenance, during conception and pregnancy, during lactation, for sheepmeat production, and for sheep under rangeland conditions. The book elaborates on the nutritive value of herbage, deleterious substances in grazed pastures, food preferences, constraints on feed intake, principles of supplementary feeding as well as trace element and vitamin nutrition under sheep-grazing systems. Microbial ecology of the ovine rumen, digestion and metabolism, and interactions between gastrointestinal parasites and nutrients are also discussed.