WATER RESTRICTION FOR SHEEP ON PASTURE AND RATE OF CONSUMPTION WITH OTHER FEEDS

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Abstract
Two experiments were conducted with sheep to determine their water consumption while grazing good pasture in a temperate climate. Similar sheep were restricted to one-half the amount consumed by those provided water ad libitum, while others were not provided with drinking water. Ewes with single lambs at two stocking rates were used one year and weaned lambs the following year. In both experiments the lambs survived on pasture without supplementary water and gained almost as well as those supplied with limited water or ad libitum water. Increasing the stocking rate reduced weight gains by lambs and ewes more than did the lack of a water supply. Weight changes indicated that lactating ewes on adequate pasture suffered more from the lack of water than did the lambs.The water consumed by wethers was recorded during the collection periods of 111 individual digestibility determinations of a variety of feeds. When dry feeds were fed the wethers consumed a total water to dry matter ratio of 2.5:1. When silage was fed the ratio increased to 3.3:1 and with frozen pasture herbage the ratio was 4.9:1. There was a significant positive correlation between dry-matter intake and both free and total water consumption with all feeds except the frozen herbage, indicating that the frozen herbage contained more water than was required by the animals.

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