Lec. 26 - Sheep and Goat Production Industries Flashcards
What is the most highly domesticated food animal species?
Sheep
What characteristics do sheep have?
Herding instinct, they are timid and defenseless, and they are the least teachable and least intelligent.
Where are sheep from?
Moufflon sheep are from Europe and Asia, Asiatic Urial sheep are from Central Asia.
What are the native sheep in North America?
Bighorn or Rocky Mountain, and domesticated sheep were imported.
What is the top state for breeding ewes?
Texas
What percent of total U.S farm revenue is from sheep?
1/3 of 1%
When did the sheep industry take a downward trend?
After WW2, because military uniforms weren’t needed as much so less wool was needed.
What are the different harvest ages in lambs?
Spring lambs, lambs younger than 1 yr old born in the spring. Lambs, older than spring lambs but still less than a year old at slaughter. Hot House lambs, harvested at less than 3 months old.
What are characteristics of lamb meat?
Red meat, naturally tender, less marbling, unique flavor.
What is a southwestern range operation?
The use fine wool ewes who are most adaptable to conditions, very little supplemental feed is offered.
What is a northwestern range operation.
Similar to southwestern, but more supplemental feed is provided. Ewes are coarser and heavier fleeced.
What are farm flock operations?
Intensive management, with 150-200% lamb crop
What are lamb feeding operations?
Lambs are fed high concentrate grain diets - high energy content.
What are pros and cons of range lambing?
Pros are no buildings, feed required is lower, there are lower label reqs. Cons are lower weaning percentages, health treatment is difficult, lower ROI, predation can be extreme.
What are pros and cons of shed lambing?
Pros are higher lamb crop percent, lamb losses can be avoided, health problems are easy to address and vaccinations are given easily. Cons are a lot of buildings are needed, feed required is higher, and more animals in one area can increase disease transmission.
