CopRice Sheep Pellets are an ideal pasture supplement for adult sheep, including ewes and rams at joining, ewes before and after lambing and dry ewes, wethers and store lambs.

CopRice Sheep Pellets are a highly digestible steam pelleted supplement. The pellets are formulated with the optimum balance of energy and crude protein sources, selected to avoid digestive upsets and supply ample supplementary nutrients in a variety of different production situations, including drought.

CopRice Sheep Pellets contain approved buffers to minimise the risk of digestive upsets as well as added essential vitamins, minerals and trace elements. CopRice can also include specific additives on request.

Successful feeding management

CopRice Sheep Pellets should be introduced gradually over a period of at least 14 days to allow the rumen to adapt. Acidosis may occur if pellets are introduced too quickly, there are sudden changes in the amount of pellets eaten or if there is not enough roughage being eaten.

In drought situations, the best time to commence supplementary feeding is before too much body condition is lost. Supplementary feeding should commence when half the flock reaches lean or store condition.

A bare paddock can provide about half the requirements of sheep. If there is no paddock roughage available, a roughage source should be fed at a level of at least 30% of the diet. Hay or straw is ideal.

Pellets should be introduced at a rate of no more than 50 g/head/day for adult sheep (25 g/head/day for weaners) and increased gradually to the full drought ration over three to four weeks as outlined in the CopRice Drought Feeding Program.

In the early stages, it is unwise to progress to higher feeding levels until the majority of sheep are eating and shy feeders have been identified and separated out. Up to 10% of sheep in drought situations may be shy feeders for a variety of reasons.

A full drought ration for a 35 kg dry ewe or wether fed CopRice Sheep Pellets is about 3.5 kg/head/ week. For weaners, 2-3 kg/head/day of pellets fed with hay ad-lib will result in continued growth and minimise the impact of the drought on future performance and returns. All sheep should be wormed regularly.

Weather conditions and exposure will play a significant part in the performance of all sheep. If the weather is particularly wet with cold, squally wind, increasing the hay allowance will help to keep animals feeding and aid in the prevention of digestive upsets. Ewes in late pregnancy and/or newly shorn adult sheep are particularly susceptible to inclement weather when good roughage is in limited supply.