How much hay do sheep need for winter?
Short answer
3–4.5 lb a day per ewe · 400–550 lb a winter · 10–13 small squares
A 150-lb ewe eats about 3–4.5 lb of hay a day at maintenance, which is 400–550 lb over a 120-day winter — 10 to 13 small square bales from a feeder. A 100-lb hair-sheep ewe eats 2.5–3 lb. Late gestation and lactation are the expensive months, and for most flocks they land in February and March, at the far end of the hay pile.
The arithmetic
- Dry matter per day = body weight × 2.5–3%. Arkansas gives 2.5–3 lb of dry matter for a 100-lb ewe and 3–4.5 lb for a 150-lb ewe; Oregon State's range for sheep is 2–5%.
- Hay as fed = dry matter ÷ 0.88. 4.5 lb of dry matter is about 5.1 lb of hay in the feeder; our calculator uses 4–5 lb a day for a 150-lb sheep.
- Season = per-day × days. 4.5 lb × 120 days = 540 lb per ewe before waste.
- Add waste. 15% from a feeder brings it to 621 lb, which is 13 small squares. Sheep waste less than goats but more than you think once the hay is on wet ground.
Why is the maintenance figure for sheep tight, but the lambing figure not?
Everyone agrees what a dry ewe eats. Nobody gives one number for a ewe about to lamb, and that is the honest position.
- Oregon State University
- Sheep 2–5% of body weight in dry matter
- University of Arkansas, FSA-9613
- 2.5–3% for ruminants; 3–4.5 lb of dry matter for a 150-lb ewe
- Virginia Cooperative Extension
- No percentage — works from energy. A 175-lb ewe in mid gestation at 3.3 lb of dry matter (≈1.9%), with the lamb count driving the late-gestation increase: +16% for twins, +31% for triplets
- Cornell Small Farms
- 2.5% base, 3.0% with waste, any species
The maintenance number is tight across sources. The disagreement is how much to add for lambing, and the answer depends on how many lambs she is carrying — which is why Virginia Tech's rule is per lamb rather than per ewe, and why Oregon State's range runs all the way to 5%.
Plan 3% for maintenance, +20% for a ewe carrying twins in her last six weeks, +50% in milk, and check the pile against those months rather than the average.
What changes your number
- When you lamb. January lambing puts late gestation in November and December; April lambing puts it in February and March. Either way the +20% and +50% months are the ones to check the pile against.
- Breed and frame. A 100-lb Katahdin and a 200-lb Suffolk are not the same hay line. Weigh a few, or use the breed average, not "150."
- Grain for lambing ewes. Virginia Tech's rule of thumb is a pound of grain per lamb carried in late gestation. It comes off the hay line but not one for one, because the grain is there for energy density, not bulk.
- Waste. Rack 5%, basket 3%, ground 13% (NC State, small squares). Sheep pull hay out of a rack and lie on it; a basket feeder with a tray under it is the cheapest hay you will buy.
- Wool. A full fleece raises the temperature a ewe can stand without extra feed. A shorn ewe or a hair sheep in a wet wind does not have that margin.
- Days without pasture. Count from the day the grass stops growing to the day it carries them again, and add two weeks.
A number we won't give you
A sheep-specific cold-weather feed increase. The published cold-weather rule — about 1% more energy for every °F of wind chill below 32°F with a dry coat, 2% per °F below 59°F wet — was worked out for beef cattle (Oklahoma State, published by Nebraska Extension). No extension service we can find publishes the sheep curve. The direction is the same; the slope is not published, so we won't invent one. That is what the 10–15% cushion is for.
Per sheep, 120 days, fed from a feeder
| Animal | Hay per day | Season (120 days) | With 15% waste | Small squares (50 lb) | Rounds (1,000 lb) |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hair-sheep ewe, 100 lb, dry | 3 lb | 360 lb | 414 lb | 9 | 0.4 |
| Wool ewe, 150 lb, dry | 4.5 lb | 540 lb | 621 lb | 13 | 0.6 |
| Ewe, 150 lb, late gestation, twins (+20%) | 5.5 lb | 660 lb | 759 lb | 16 | 0.8 |
| Ewe, 150 lb, lactating (+50%) | 7 lb | 840 lb | 966 lb | 20 | 1.0 |
| Ram, 200 lb | 6 lb | 720 lb | 828 lb | 17 | 0.8 |
The late-gestation step follows Virginia Tech: energy requirement +16% for twins and +31% for triplets over a single-bearing ewe. Lactation sits at the top of Oregon State's 2–5% range; 50% is a planning figure, not a measurement of your ewe.
The whole flock — 150-lb ewes, 120 days
| Head | Hay per day, whole herd | Feeder, 15% waste | Ground, 30% waste | Round bales (1,000 lb), feeder |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2 | 9 lb | 1,242 lb · 25 small squares | 1,404 lb · 29 small squares | 2 |
| 5 | 22.5 lb | 3,105 lb · 63 small squares | 3,510 lb · 71 small squares | 4 |
| 10 | 45 lb | 6,210 lb · 125 small squares | 7,020 lb · 141 small squares | 7 |
| 20 | 90 lb | 12,420 lb · 249 small squares | 14,040 lb · 281 small squares | 13 |
Add the 10–15% cushion. If the flock lambs in late winter, the last month of the pile is the one that runs short.
Run your own numbers
This is our winter hay calculator with ten ewes filled in. Change the head count, weight, days or feeder and the bale count follows.
Your animals
| Species | Head | Avg weight (lb) |
|---|---|---|
| Goat | ||
| Sheep | ||
| Cattle | ||
| Horse | ||
| Alpaca / Llama | ||
| Donkey |
You’ll need about
125 bales
- Total hay (with waste)
- 6,210 lb
- That’s
- 3.1 tons
- Per day, all animals
- 52 lb
10 sheep: 45 lb/day → 5,400 lb+ 15% waste
Hard winter, late kids, or a doe in milk? Most folks buy a 10% cushion (137 bales) — hay is scarcest and priciest in February.
The same tool lives at /tools/hay-calculator with every species and the arithmetic explained.
What the winter costs
At Cornell's 2024 New York prices — $4–6 a small square, $180–265 a ton — a 150-lb ewe's 13 bales run about $52–78 for a 120-day winter from a feeder, and a 100-lb hair ewe about two-thirds of that. Ten ewes is roughly a ton and a half with waste: three to four 4×4 rounds at $40–50, or 125 small squares. Your prices will differ; the ratio usually does not.
What to do with the surplus
Leftover hay in April is next winter's first month, if it stayed dry. Stack it off the ground, keep the tarp off the sides so it can breathe, and feed the oldest first next fall. A sweet or dusty smell means mold — compost it, don't feed it, and don't store next year's hay on top of it.
Then stop planning from averages
The table above is somebody else's sheep. In Homestead Paradise you log the bales you actually buy and the animals you actually have: each pen shows feed cost per head per day, each item of feed shows the day it runs out, and the budget page shows whether winter is running over what you planned. 14-day free trial, no card.
Start your 14-day trial — no cardKeep planning
Sources
Every figure on this page comes from a land-grant university extension service, a government agriculture or energy agency, or a breed registry — never from another blog.
- University of Arkansas Extension — FSA-9613, feeding small ruminants: intake by class, hay ≈ 88% dry matter
- Virginia Cooperative Extension — Livestock Update APS-381: ewe energy requirements by lamb count in late gestation
- Oregon State University Small Farms — Calculating Livestock Winter Hay Needs: intake as % of body weight by species, 10–50% waste
- Cornell Small Farms — How Much Hay Do I Need for Winter? (2024): 2.5 lb per 100 lb, 3.0 with waste, 200-day plan, bale prices
- West Virginia University Extension — Calculating Your Winter Hay Needs: 2–2.5%, round-bale weights, 5–20% waste, hay 90–93% dry matter
- NC State Extension, Polk County — Calculating Winter Hay Needs: waste by feeding method (rack 5%, basket 3%, ground 13%), storage 5%
- University of Nebraska–Lincoln Extension (Glenn Selk, Oklahoma State) — Feeding Cows for Cold Weather: lower critical temperature and the per-degree energy rule