Sheep farming

Key takeaways

Sheep farming belongs to science; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sheep farming to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sheep farming from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sheep farming or sheep husbandry is the raising and breeding of domestic sheep. It is a branch of animal husbandry. Sheep are raised principally for their meat (lamb and mutton), milk (sheep's milk), and fiber (wool). They also yield sheepskin and parchment. Sheep can be raised in a range of temperate climates, including arid zones near the equator and other torrid zones. Farmers build fences, housing, shearing sheds, and other facilities on their property, such as for water, feed, transport, and pest control. Most farms are managed so sheep can graze pastures, sometimes under the control of a shepherd or sheep dog. Farmers can select from various breeds suitable for their region and market conditions. When the farmer sees that a ewe (female adult) is showing signs of heat or estrus, they can organise for mating with males. Newborn lambs are typically subjected to lamb marking, which involves tail docking, mulesing, earmarking, and males may be castrated.

Sheep production worldwide

According to the FAOSTAT database of the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization, the top five countries by number of head of sheep (average from 1993 to 2013) were: mainland China (146.5 million head), Australia (101.1 million), India (62.1 million), Iran (51.7 million), and the former Sudan (46.2 million). Approximately 540 million sheep are slaughtered each year for meat worldwide. In 2013, the five countries with the largest number of head of sheep were mainland China (175 million), Australia (75.5 million), India (53.8 million), the former Sudan (52.5 million), and Iran (50.2 million). In 2018, Mongolia had 30.2 million sheep. In 2013, the number of head of sheep were distributed as follows: 44% in Asia, 28.2% in Africa; 11.2% in Europe, 9.1% in Oceania, 7.4% in the Americas. The top producers of sheep meat (average from 1993 to 2013) were as follows: mainland China (1.6 million); Australia (618,000), New Zealand (519,000), the United Kingdom (335,000), and Turkey (288,857). The top five producers of sheep meat in 2013 were mainland China (2 million), Australia (660,000), New Zealand (450,000), the former Sudan (325,000), and Turkey (295,000).

U.S. sheep production In the United States, inventory data on sheep began in 1867, when 45 million head of sheep were counted in the United States. The numbers of sheep peaked in 1884 at 51 million head, and then declined over time to almost 6 million head. Between the 1960s and 2012, per capita per year consumption of lamb and mutton has declined from nearly five pounds (about 2 kg) to just about one pound (450g), because of competition from poultry, pork, beef, and other meats. Between the 1990s and 2012, U.S. sheep operations declined from around 105,000 to around 80,000 because of shrinking revenues and low rates of return. According to the Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture, the sheep industry accounts for less than one percent of U.S. livestock industry receipts.

Reproduction

Lambing

Most lambs are born outdoors. Ewes can be made to give birth in fall, winter, or spring months, either by artificial insemination or by facilitating natural mating. Fall lambing is generally not done as the lamb crop percentage is likely to be low; ewes often need hormone therapy to induce estrus and ovulation, and farm labor is often busy elsewhere during fall lambing. Furthermore, fall-born lambs can be weak and small because of heat stress during the summer gestation period. Spring lambing has the advantage of coinciding with the natural breeding and lambing seasons, but supplemental feed is often needed. The advantage of winter lambing is that the lambs are weaned in spring when pastures are most fertile. This allows the lambs to grow more quickly, and to be sold for slaughter during the summer (when prices are generally high), but it results in roughly one in every four newborn lambs dying within a few days of birth of malnutrition, disease, or exposure to the harsh cold. In the UK, it results in around 4 million newborn lamb deaths. "Accelerated lambing" is the practice of lambing more than once a year, typically every 6 to 8 months. The advantages of accelerated lambing include increased lamb production, having lambs available for slaughter at different seasons, year-round use of labor and facilities, and increased income per ewe. It requires intensive management, early weaning, exogenous hormones, and artificial impregnation. It is often used to make old or soon-to-be infertile ewes give birth one more time before they are slaughtered.

Lamb marking

… excerpt ends here. Continue reading the full article.

Illustrations

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sheep farming

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sheep farming claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In science, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sheep farming before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sheep farming ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sheep farming

In research: Sheep farming appears in science research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sheep farming in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sheep farming is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics Animal breeding, Culture of Australia, Culture of Ireland, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sheep farming outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

How to study Sheep farming in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sheep farming means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sheep farming out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sheep farming in simple terms?

Sheep farming or sheep husbandry is the raising and breeding of domestic sheep. It is a branch of animal husbandry.

Why does Sheep farming matter?

Because it connects several science ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sheep farming?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sheep farming.