Wheat Bran for Sheep: Daily Amount and Price vs Barley

Wheat bran for sheep: how much to feed a day, the price at which it beats barley, how to price a sack and how much chalk to add. Autumn 2026.

Wheat bran is a cheap stand-in for part of the barley in a sheep ration: ewes get up to 0.4 kg a day, and fattening lambs about 60 g. On energy per som, bran beats barley for ewes as long as a kilogram costs less than 81% of the price of a kilogram of barley. With barley at 3,500 som, that is ≈ 2,850 som per kg (≈ $0.24). For fattening rams the threshold is lower, 76%, or ≈ 2,670 som. The main risk of bran for sheep is phosphorus, which causes urinary stones in fattening rams, so without alfalfa you need to add feed chalk.

Below: bran against barley by composition, daily amounts by group, how to check the price of a sack, the numbers for 100 ewes, and how to prevent urinary stones. Prices come from olx.uz listings from October to early November 2026. The Central Bank of Uzbekistan rate on 7 November 2026 was 11,987.16 som to the dollar.

How does wheat bran differ from barley?

Wheat bran (called "kepak" in Uzbek) is the grain husk left over after flour is milled. Compared with barley it has less starch and energy, but more protein, fiber and phosphorus.

The values are recalculated from averages in the international Feedipedia feed database (INRAE, CIRAD, AFZ and FAO) for feed at 13% moisture; the UFL and UFV rows come from the French INRA 2018 tables (feedtables.com) for feed as fed. Metabolizable energy is the part of a feed's energy that stays in the sheep's body after losses in feces, urine and gases. Net energy is what actually goes to maintenance and milk (UFL) or to weight gain (UFV). A sheep uses the energy of fiber less well than the energy of starch, so on net energy bran falls further behind barley than it does on metabolizable energy. A particular batch of bran will differ from the average: in the same database, protein in different brans ranges from 14 to 21% of dry matter.

That gives the ratio for ewes: 0.4 kg of bran supplies as much energy as ≈ 0.33 kg of barley. The swap adds 27 g of protein and more than halves the starch, so in a sheep ration bran works both as a protein source and as a gentler feed for the rumen. But you can't replace all the grain with it, because of the phosphorus.

At what price is bran cheaper than barley for sheep?

Compare the price of energy, not the price of a sack. Barley on olx.uz in October 2026 costs 3,200–4,000 som per kg. We use 3,500 som (≈ $0.29) in the calculation. For ewes, bran matches barley on the price of energy at ≈ 2,850 som per kg, for fattening rams at ≈ 2,670 som.

A rule for any season: multiply the price of a kilogram of barley by 0.81 for ewes and by 0.76 for fattening. Paying more than that for bran just for the energy doesn't make sense.

On metabolizable energy the threshold would come out higher, at 0.89, but that overstates it: sheep turn part of the energy in bran into neither milk nor gain. On the old oat feed units the threshold is stricter still, about 0.65 (0.75 units in bran against 1.15 in barley), which is ≈ 2,280 som with barley at 3,500. That is why, in the article on the price per kilogram of protein in meal, bran and barley, bran at 2,800 som against barley at 3,800 som came out as the most expensive energy on the list. For a fattening ram this is the main takeaway: it is cheaper to get energy for gain from grain, and to buy bran only well below the threshold. Bran is also cheaper per unit of protein: at 2,900 som per kg of bran, a kilogram of crude protein costs about 19,200 som (≈ $1.60), against 34,000 som (≈ $2.84) in barley at 3,500 som. The same article on the price of protein gives different numbers, because it counts digestible protein and summer 2026 prices, but the order is the same: bran is cheaper than barley per unit of protein, and cottonseed meal is cheaper than bran.

How do you find the price per kilogram when bran is sold by the sack?

Most olx.uz ads for bran in October 2026 give the price of a sack with no weight: 61,000–92,000 som (≈ $5.1–7.7). A price per kilogram is rarer: 2,300 som in Termez, 2,650 som in Chirchiq, 3,360 som in Tashkent. In ads that state a weight, a 25 kg sack costs from 72,000 som, or 2,880 som per kg (≈ $0.24), up to 83,000 som, or 3,320 som per kg. With barley at 3,500 som, neither sack is cheaper than barley on energy: the first is right at the threshold for ewes, the second is clearly more expensive.

Bran is light, and sacks of the same size can weigh different amounts. Ask for the weight, or weigh one sack at the warehouse and check it against the table. The table shows the least a sack must weigh for bran fed to ewes to cost the same as barley at 3,500 som per kg (threshold ≈ 2,850 som per kg of bran).

A sack lighter than that costs more than barley for the energy, even if it looks cheap. For fattening rams the sack must be another 7% heavier. To compare suppliers, browse sheep feed for sale in Uzbekistan.

How much bran should a sheep get per day?

These are the cautious limits Feedipedia cites from Ewing (1997): no more than 5% of the ration for lambs and no more than 20% of the ration for ewes. In kilograms, that looks like this.

The limit for rams is our own cautious estimate, not a figure from the reference. Trials collected in the same database fed more bran: in work by Indian researchers (Singh et al., 1999), adult sheep got bran in place of barley at up to 50% of the ration, and in lambs half the maize in the concentrate was replaced with no loss of the 85–90 g daily gain (Dhakad et al., 2002). So the limits have a safety margin, but these trials don't remove the phosphorus problem.

Introduce bran gradually over 7–10 days, as with any concentrate. Bran is mildly laxative, so cut the amount if the droppings turn loose. If the diarrhea doesn't stop or the sheep stops eating, take the bran out and call a vet.

How much does bran save on 100 ewes over the winter?

Take 100 ewes, 90 days of winter ration, and a swap of 0.326 kg of barley for 0.4 kg of bran a day: the same net energy for ewes (UFL), and 27 g more protein per head. Barley costs 3,500 som per kg. The answer depends on the price of the bran.

This is a simplified calculation: it leaves out delivery and storage, and assumes the same weight gain and milk yield, since the energy in the ration is the same. The takeaway: on a flock of 100 ewes, the gap between cheap and expensive bran is more than 3.8 million som over the winter, so work out the price per kilogram before you buy. It is easier to track feed stock, the feeding log and costs in a feed tracking app for sheep. That is a section of QoyHunter, a CRM for sheep records and the bazar.qoyhunter.com marketplace.

Why is bran dangerous for fattening rams?

A kilogram of wheat bran has almost three times as much phosphorus as barley, and about eight times less calcium than phosphorus. The excess phosphorus passes out in the urine and crystallizes. In rams and wethers the urethra is long and narrow, stones lodge in it, and the animal can no longer urinate. For details and signs, see the article on why rams die on grain fattening.

The ration needs twice as much calcium as phosphorus. A simple calculation lets you check it.

• With alfalfa. A kilogram of alfalfa hay has about 15 g of calcium and 2.3 g of phosphorus according to Feedipedia. That kilogram holds the 2:1 ratio at about 0.5 kg of bran, if there is no other grain. Barley eats into that margin: with 0.3 kg of barley and 0.4 kg of bran per 1 kg of alfalfa, the ratio comes out at about 2.2:1.
• Without alfalfa. Straw and grass hay are low in calcium. For every 100 g of bran, add about 5 g of feed chalk (it is roughly 38% calcium), which is 20 g of chalk for 0.4 kg of bran. That is more than the usual guideline of about 1% chalk to grain, because bran has almost three times as much phosphorus as barley. Mix the chalk into the bran so every sheep eats its share.
• Water. Clean water should always be available, with no limit: the less a ram drinks, the more concentrated the urine.

If a ram strains, passes urine only in drops, or doesn't pass any, it is an emergency: get him to a vet the same day. Also check the amount of chalk and supplements for your own ration with a vet or livestock specialist.

What kind of bran should you not feed to sheep?

Don't buy bran that is moldy, smells musty or has lumps. It may carry more harmful fungi and toxins, and rancid fat makes sheep eat less. Keep sacks on pallets in a dry place, away from the wall. It is best to feed an opened sack quickly.

Ads also sell other products under the same word. "Unli kepak" is floury bran: it has more flour in it, so the starch and energy may be higher than usual, which means you introduce it as carefully as grain. "Corn kepak" and mixes with grain waste are different feeds, and the figures in this article don't apply to them. Ask which grain the bran is from and what has been added.

FAQ

Can you feed sheep only bran instead of barley?

No. Sheep get bran along with hay and usually along with grain. The cautious limit from Feedipedia is 20% of an ewe's ration, which is about 0.4 kg a day at 2 kg of feed. If bran replaces all the grain, the ration ends up with too much phosphorus, and in rams that risks stones in the urinary tract.

How much bran should a sheep get per day?

Up to 0.4 kg a day for an ewe at 2 kg of feed, and about 60 g for a fattening lamb at 1.2 kg of feed. For rams the source gives no separate limit: keep it cautiously to 0.36 kg at 1.8 kg of feed, and only when calcium is twice the phosphorus. Introduce bran over 7–10 days.

At what price is bran a better buy than barley?

On the price of energy, bran is a better buy than barley for ewes as long as a kilogram costs less than 81% of the price of a kilogram of barley, and for fattening rams less than 76%. With barley at 3,500 som per kg in autumn 2026, that is about 2,850 and 2,670 som per kg of bran (≈ $0.24 and $0.22). Divide the price of a sack by its weight: a 25 kg sack at 72,000 som works out to 2,880 som per kg, which is right at the threshold for ewes and more expensive than barley for fattening.

How much chalk should you add to bran for sheep?

If the ration has no alfalfa, aim for about 5 g of feed chalk per 100 g of bran, which is 20 g of chalk for 0.4 kg of bran a day. That is calculated for a calcium to phosphorus ratio of 2:1. With alfalfa hay you usually don't need chalk: 1 kg of alfalfa balances about 0.5 kg of bran. Check the exact amount with a vet or livestock specialist.

Is bran suitable for pregnant and nursing ewes?

Yes, up to 0.4 kg a day at 2 kg of feed: bran has more protein than barley, and a ewe needs protein for milk. But it has less energy than grain, so in the last weeks of pregnancy bran alone should not replace the concentrate. Check the ewes' ration with a vet or livestock specialist before lambing.