Description
Live Stock
SHEEP
Sheep (Ovis aries) are domesticated, ruminant mammals typically
kept as livestock. Although the term sheep can apply to other
species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always
refers to domestic sheep. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of
the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Numbering a little
over one billion, domestic sheep are also the most numerous species
of sheep. An adult female is referred to as a ewe (/juË/), an
intact male as a ram, occasionally a tup, a castrated male as a
wether, and a young sheep as a lamb.
Sheep are most likely descended from the wild mouflon of Europe and
Asia, with Iran being a geographic envelope of the domestication
center. One of the earliest animals to be domesticated for
agricultural purposes, sheep are raised for fleeces, meat (lamb,
hogget or mutton) and milk. A sheep's wool is the most widely used
animal fiber, and is usually harvested by shearing. Ovine meat is
called lamb when from younger animals and mutton when from older
ones in Commonwealth countries, and lamb in the United States
(including from adults). Sheep continue to be important for wool
and meat today, and are also occasionally raised for pelts, as
dairy animals, or as model organisms for science.
Sheep husbandry is practised throughout the majority of the
inhabited world, and has been fundamental to many civilizations. In
the modern era, Australia, New Zealand, the southern and central
South American nations, and the British Isles are most closely
associated with sheep production.
