Sheep: Breeding & World Distribution | Livestock | Economic Geography

In this article we will discuss about:- 1. Importance of Sheep 2. Breeding of Sheep 3. World Distribution.

Importance of Sheep:

Sheep are reared either for wool or for meat. The meat of sheep is called mutton, or lamb for the meat of animals less than 8 months old. Apart from wool and meat sheep may also yield milk, but they are rarely kept for this purpose only.

Ewes’ milk is usually used by nomadic pastoralists who keep sheep, or is used, e.g. in France, to make cheese. Other by-products of sheep rearing are the skins which are used for leather, and the fat, which is used in the processing of synthetic rubber and in making antibiotic drugs. A fatty substance called lanolin, which is obtained during wool processing, forms the basis of cosmetics manu­facture, and is used for making creams and lotions.

Sheep’s intestines also have many uses when washed and cleaned, including strings for musical instruments and sports equipment, e.g. tennis and badminton rackets; surgical applications; and sausage-casings.

Generally speaking, sheep are less valuable animals than cattle. They are smaller and yield less meat. Moreover mutton and lamb are not popular in many countries so that markets are more restricted. However, sheep can live in much more rigorous climatic con­ditions than cattle. They can live on the scanty pas­turage of semi-arid regions, in rocky, exposed upland areas and even in very wet regions such as North Wales where the annual rainfall exceeds 5,080 mm (200 inches).

They do not do well in tropical regions, but even in Malaysia, a few are found. Sheep are very often not economic to keep in well-favoured agricultural areas but are of some importance in marginal agri­cultural regions, where huge flocks are kept. Sheep farming is therefore associated with regions of sparse population.

The use of marginal land for sheep rearing sometimes leads to overgrazing with consequent soil erosion and impoverishment, as for example in Medi­terranean and semi-desert areas. Sheep farms, especial­ly in Australia, are often badly affected by drought.

Although sheep can thrive in poor areas and often produce fine wool in such conditions, sheep kept for meat require better pasturage if the quality of the meat is to be good. They are therefore kept in rich lowland pastures, or animals raised in the marginal lands are brought to the better areas for fattening and conditioning before slaughter.

Sheep are rarely kept for both meat and wool though sheep kept for meat may be clipped and thus yield some wool. Many breeds are, however, dual-purpose, that is they yield either meat or wool depending on the conditions in which they are reared and the interests of the farmer.

Breeding of Sheep:

The main wool-bearing sheep breed, the Merino. Most of the sheep breeds kept for meat originated in the British Isles. The Blackface, which originated in the Highlands of Scotland yields superior meat but poor wool. It is a hardy breed which can live on scanty upland pastures.

The Cheviot, bred in the Cheviot Hills on the border between Scotland and England, requires slightly better pasturage to do well, and is used either for meat or wool production. Other British breeds, mainly dual-purpose, are the Leicester from the Midlands, and the Southdown, Lincoln and Romney Marsh breeds from the chalk and limestone scarplands. Black Welsh from the Welsh mountains, Rough Fell and Swaledale from the Pennines, are kept chiefly for mutton and lamb and can survive in damp, exposed upland conditions.

World Distribution of Sheep:

Sheep are more widely distributed than any other domesticated animal, but the majority are kept for wool rather than meat, especially in the semi-arid regions. Mutton and lamb are not consumed so widely as beef, and the main regions where they are eaten in large quantities are: Britain, the drier parts of Eurasia and North Africa, and the sheep-raising regions of the southern conti­nents, namely New Zealand, Australia and Argentina.

Generally speaking, little mutton or lamb is eaten in Europe or North America in comparison with beef, though total consumption in a large country such as the U.S.A. is considerable. Australia has the second largest sheep population in the world. This is partly because the climatic and vegetation condi­tions are well-suited to sheep.

The dry climate of much of Australia is ideal for wool production, though temperatures are too warm in the northern part of the country. The poor grassland vegetation is also suited to sheep, though the farms must be very large to provide adequate pasturage for the large numbers of animals kept. In the drier parts of the country sheep are kept mainly for wool and Australia is the world’s leading wool producer and exporter.

Australia is also the second largest producer of lamb and mutton and is a major exporter. The sheep raised for lamb are kept mainly in the south-east of the country, where the climate is more humid and where the pasturage is better. They are fed on improved pastures or kept on arable farms where they graze the wheat stubble or graze on ley pastures. The states of New South Wales and Victoria have the largest numbers of sheep and produce the most meat.

They have the advantage not only of better natural conditions but also of the nearby markets in the large towns and cities, such as Sydney and Melbourne. While the Merino is the major breed kept in Australia as a whole, increasing numbers of such breeds as Leicester, Lincoln and Romney Marsh are kept for meat, with wool as a by-product. Australians eat much lamb and mutton but large quantities are exported in chilled or frozen form.

The U.S.S.R. has the largest number of sheep, and produces much lamb and mutton, mostly for local consumption. Sheep are kept mainly in the drier parts of the country, notably in Central Asia and the Trans- caucasian region (Georgia and Armenia), and are fed largely on natural pastures, though there is a growing tendency to use sown pastures for fattening.

New Zealand, despite its small size, has the fourth largest number of sheep in the world, most of them kept primarily for lamb production. New Zealand is by far the largest lamb and mutton exporter. The main markets for New Zealand lamb are Britain and the U.S A. This situation is made possible by the large- scale use of refrigerated ships to transport the meat round the world.

The mild, maritime climate; the pre­-dominance of a type of mixed farming geared especial­ly to animal fattening; the use of fertilizers and sown pastures and the proximity of the farming areas to ocean transport routes, are the main advantages which have given New Zealand a lead in lamb pro­duction. Meat production is highly efficient and the lamb is of high quality.

English sheep breeds are mainly used, the sheep being bred on the rougher pastures of the uplands and transferred as lambs to the lowland farms for fattening before being slaughtered. Sheep may also be reared entirely in one region, especially the Canterbury Plains on the drier east of the South Island.

Where natural pastures have been improved by the use of fertilizers or the sowing of clover, usually with the aid of light aircraft, it is also possible to rear the lambs entirely in the foothill areas. Apart from the Canter­bury Plains, where both meat and wool sheep are kept, the main sheep-rearing regions include the Auckland Peninsula, the Hawkes Bay region, the Taranaki and Wanganui lowlands in the North Island and the Otago region in the South Island.

In the U.S.A. sheep are far less popular than cattle as farm animals and as providers of meat. Numbers have consistently declined from around 20 million in 1970 to 12 million in 1977. They are kept for both meat and wool, mainly in the western states. Texas is the leading sheep-rearing state. The sheep are often kept on a transhumance system, being taken to cooler mountainous regions in summer, and fed in winter on irrigated fields in the valleys.

Sheep rearing is a major occupation in the United Kingdom either by itself or as part of the mixed farm­ing system. Sheep kept on mixed farms graze on arable stubble or ley pastures. Britain has for centuries been a sheep raiser and an exporter of pedigree sheep.

It is on British sheep breeds that most of the world’s com­mercial flocks are founded. Mutton and lamb are such popular meats in Britain that despite its own consider­able production the U.K. also imports large quantities.

The per capita mutton consumption of 9 kg (20 lb) per year is the highest in the world (excepting New Zealand and Australia) as compared with only 1 kg (2 ½ lb) in the United States. The principal British sheep areas are generally those where crops cannot be grown or where cattle cannot be kept.

They include the rough pasture lands of the Scottish Highlands, the Southern Uplands of Scotland, the Cheviot Hills, the Pennines, the Lake District, the Welsh mountains, the moorlands of Devon, Somerset and Cornwall and parts of eastern Ireland.

Sheep are raised in the exposed moorlands but are brought down to the better valley pastures, or sent to Midland farms for fattening before being slaughtered. Other main sheep-rearing areas are the limestone and chalk hills of southern and eastern England where the calcareous soil supports calcium- rich grass ideal for sheep.

Sheep may be kept alone or reared on mixed farms in these regions which include the Cotswold Hills, North and South Downs and Lincoln Wolds. Other European countries with sizeable numbers of sheep include Spain, Portugal, Italy (mainly in the south), Bulgaria, Yugoslavia and France. The sheep are kept in the drier areas or limestone uplands where cattle do not thrive.

In South America, sheep rearing is most impor­tant in the drier parts of Argentina including the whole of Patagonia, Tierra del Fuego, western Argentina and the eastern foothills of the Andes. The low and variable rainfall, the poor pasturage, the severe winter and the sparse population, all make the region more suitable for sheep grazing than for cattle rearing.

The sheep ranches are extremely large in Patagonia, covering several hundred thousands of hectares each, because it needs many hectares of this semi-arid land with its bunchy grasses to support a single sheep. Argentina is an exporter of both wool and mutton and Patagonia alone contributes between a third and half the national output. Sheep farming, especially for wool, is also important in Uruguay. Chile, Peru and southern Brazil also have some sheep farms.

In South Africa the sheep is the most numerous animal (31 million) and there are more than twice as many sheep as cattle. The dry climate of the Veld, its grassland vegetation and plateau relief are ideal for sheep. The sheep reared are almost exclusively merino breeds kept for wool, of which South Africa is a major exporter. Most of South Africa’s output of mutton or lamb is consumed locally.

Sheep are kept in large numbers in the Middle East and Africa. Turkey, Iran and Afghanistan are the leading sheep-farming countries in the Middle East. In Africa sheep rearing is best developed in Morocco, Algeria, Ethiopia, Kenya and Nigeria. The sheep graze on the grassy hill slopes, providing meat, wool and milk to the herders. Both India and China have many sheep and goats. In China, they are kept mainly on extensive farms in the western province of Xinjiang (Sinkiang) and in Inner Mongolia.