Nutrition of herded sheep in the andes of Southern Peru

Abstract

Botanical and nutritional composition of diet and voluntary intake by herded Corriedale sheep grazing native range in southern Peru were determined. Diet composition and nutrition varied with season and herding. Sheep diet composition was influenced by available forage and thus shifted from shortgrass in the dry season to grasslike plants in the early rainy season and to tall grasses in the late rainy season. Forbs consisted of 10% of the diet and appeared to be of nutritional importance. Crude protein (CP), highly correlated to digestible energy, decreased from 13.6% to 5.6% with increasing maturity of vegetation. Intake was influenced by season, with lower intake values of 82.8 g/kg BW 0.75 observed during the dry season vs 99.7 g/kg BW 0.75 during the wet season. Sheep may be deficient in energy and crude protein during gestation and early lactation. Based on the herbage production and intake values in this study, the conventional stocking rate of two ewe equivalents per hectare for this region is appropriate.