Sheep Preferences: 2015 vs 2016

by Mikala Parr, Research Assistant

Click on graph to enlarge

in 2015:

• sheep clearly preferred willows over poplars
• sheep seemed to prefer trees with higher calcium content, and avoid trees with higher copper contents

in 2016:

• a mineral supplement was provided to balance the ewes’ diet
• while there were some minor differences in preference ranking between years, the change was not statistically significant
• sheep seemed to prefer trees with more NDFD (48hrs)

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Thanks go to Brent Attwell (REGEN Forestry) and Collholm Farm for their contributions to this project. This project was funded by the Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency.

For more information on this project, see:

Sheep Preferences 2016

Nutritional value and integration of hybrid willow and poplar as fodder for sheep: 2015 results