Understanding sheep grazing behavior and nutritional needs is fundamental to their welfare, with inappropriate nutrition causing metabolic diseases during pregnancy and lactation that cause significant preventable welfare harm.
Sheep nutritional welfare requires proactive management to prevent metabolic diseases that cause significant suffering and death. Pregnancy toxemia in ewes carrying multiple lambs causes progressive weakness, neurological symptoms, and death if energy needs are not met in late pregnancy. The disease is entirely preventable through body condition assessment and appropriate supplementary feeding. Grass tetany from magnesium deficiency causes acute seizures and death in apparently healthy animals. Regular body condition scoring and nutritional monitoring represents the most important preventive welfare tool for sheep flock management.