Even today, wool may be used to create clothing or blankets, and can be easily found in most craft stores. Some breeds of sheep, especially those bred for meat, have less wool fibers and more hair fibers similar to the hair of a goat. All sheep have both wool fibers and hair fibers. Wooled sheep are bred to have predominantly wool, and little hair, and hair sheep are bred to have mostly hair, and little wool.
Although this can hair cannot be used as a textile, hair sheep have an advantage in their skin. In wooled sheep, the many wool fibers are fine and closely packed, making the skin more open and supple. Sheep leather is often used to make book covers, leather accessories, or even furniture. One of the most common uses for sheep today, is for their meat, which is called mutton. Mutton is very popular in Europe and throughout the Middle East.
The meat has a strong flavor, large grain texture, and dark red color. It also has a bit more fat, the amount of which correlates with the age of the sheep.
Another key product from sheep is milk. It is believed that due to their early domestication, sheep were milked long before it became common to milk cows. Today, the practice of milking sheep is most common in Europe and countries surrounding the Mediterranean Sea. The milk itself is rarely consumed, instead it is normally sent to processors to be made into gourmet cheese, yogurts, or ice creams.
Lambs born from a seasoned ewe will normally arrive in mid March, and lambs born from a yearling ewe will arrive roughly three weeks later. Ewes typically birth one to three lambs at a time, with twins being the most common.
They normally weigh five to ten pounds at birth and look like miniature versions of their mothers. Birth size can vary considerably, but lambs are normally the same size as a human newborn, averaging 20 inches in length. Sleep is critical for most baby animals, and lambs are no exception, sleeping eight to twelve hours each day. The ewe will teach her lambs the ins and outs of what it means to be a sheep. For nearly every product which can be created from a sheep, there is a more expensive one created from a lamb.
Lambswool is shorn from a lamb when it is only a few months old. It is also said to be naturally hypoallergenic and resistant to dust mites. Where this all gets a bit confusing is that lamb is also the word used to describe the meat of a sheep less than one year old. Mutton is the term for sheep meat that is from animals that are older. Since age of the sheep is so important in the selling price and the animal value, how do you tell the age of a sheep?
Actually it is simple, by the teeth. Sheep get two teeth in at one year of age. These teeth are permanent. Each year until the animal is four it will get two more teeth, so by her fourth birthday a ewe will have a total of 8 teeth. Mature sheep include ewes, rams and sometimes wethers in the cases of sheep with very valuable wool or pets that are over one year of age.
Mature sheep have a full set of teeth, generally a more filled out body and are taller than lambs of the same breed. Mature sheep will also have a more balanced look to their body as a whole, whereas young lambs look out of proportion, they are gangly and all legs. The job of a mature sheep both male and female is reproduction.
Mature sheep will generally flock well, some breeds more than others, and will want to stay with the group. Moving a group of mature sheep is easier than moving lambs since lambs do not flock well. The meat from mature sheep is called mutton. When a ewe or ram is past her or his useful life it will go into the food chain. Meat from these older animals has more flavor and is preferred by more traditional eaters over lamb especially if the lamb was grain fed.
The mutton tastes more like the full flavored meat that they grew up eating back home. We have noticed that a carcass of a full size sheep, over a year old, will yield much more meat than that of a younger lamb. In terms of meat yield per animal mutton gets you more meat if you are buying animals by the head.
This makes the best use of the animal itself, reproduce then yield well for meat. The rest is genetics. Ensure that your rams have a good diet and be sure to provide them with a high energy diet before breeding season.
Rams can live together, but it depends on the individuals in question. Some rams will live happily side by side, while others will constantly butt heads and ram one another in an ongoing bid for dominance.
If you keep one ram, it is recommended that you keep another, but this usually takes the form of a castrated ram, called a wether.
Rams are suitable for any sheep owner or breeder that wants to breed their sheep. You will need one ram for every 30 to ewes, depending on the libido, performance, and the age of the rams. Alternatively, rams can be kept for stud and offered out to local ewes. A ram is a male sheep aged over 12 months, whereas any sheep under the age of 12 months is called a lamb. Female sheep are called ewes, and these make up the majority of a flock, in most cases.
There are approximately 1 billion sheep in the world today, and these are reared and bred for their coats, their meat, and their milk. Some sheep are also kept for showing and exhibitions, and these can cost a lot of money to buy and raise.
Sheep are generally considered friendly and gentle animals. They are herd animals, which means that they will do better in a group rather than on their own. As such, they get along with other sheep and they can get along with, or at least tolerate, other species of animal.
When reared from a young age, and especially when bottle-fed, sheep can also form a close bond with their owner. They tend to be obedient and follow a master or leader, and they are surprisingly intelligent. They have good memory and recognition skills. They do form close bonds with other sheep and may even stick up for one another in a fight or confrontation.
Starting your own flock can mark a positive step towards self-sufficiency, and a large farm flock can turn a handsome profit. Sheep are flock animals, which means that they will do better in groups. Start with a flock of at least five sheep. You can also milk sheep if you feel like fighting with lbs of panicking flight animal. It depends. If you need bush clearing, then goats. Despite the absence of sheepish behavior, a ram is very much a woolly herd animal, as opposed to a hardy, browsing caprine.
Both species have a valuable role to play on a homestead, but which one you choose will depend on your environment, livestock handling skills, and bravery when faced with big horns attached to lb of hysterical wool! Skip to content Do you know what really gets my goat? People who confuse rams with goats.
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