Sheep are one of the animals that rely on forages for food. They are considered small ruminants meaning to say they have four (4) compartment stomachs namely; Rumen, Omasum, reticulum, and abomasum.
Sheeps are foragers and they consume forage grasses. And most of the grasses that they intake will be fermented in the rumen stomach. Most people think that if we give grass or any forages to ruminants, we feed the animal itself. But actually, we do not feed the animal but feed the microorganism present in the rumen. And these rumen microbes will undergo defaunation and the remains of it will be utilized by the animal.
The relationship between sheep and forages is that when the production of grasses in the pasture increases the production of ruminant animals will also increase. And when the production of pasture grasses decreases it definitely affects the production of ruminant animals since they rely so much on the pasture. So ruminant and pasture industry is a twin industries.
During summer in the Philippines setting production of grasses decreases. So it is very important to preserve grasses for future use or if there is a shortage of feed.
Forage preservation can be done by making silage, haylage, and soilage. These three methods preserved the quality of the grasses without altering their nutritional composition.
By doing so we can mitigate the problem of feed shortage for the ruminants.
