Why People Raise Sheep

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Part of the video series: Understanding & Raising Sheep

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Summary: Watch a naturalist from the Massachusetts Audubon Society's Drumlin Farm explain why people raise sheep in this free online video.

Views: 893 | Tags: techniques, wool, types, food, pets, animals, animal, behavior, breeding, shepherd, wildlife, raise, farm, farming, agriculture, sheep, lambs, ewes, rams, husbandry, habits, mutton, biology, zoology, anatomy, farm animals

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About the Expert

Tia Pinney Tia Pinney is a Teacher Naturalist and Adult Program Coordinator at Mass Audubon’s Drumlin Farm Wildlife Sanctuary in Lincoln, Massachusetts. She is involved ... read more

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Video Transcript

Why People Raise Sheep

Okay sheep as an agricultural animal, one of the reasons we have kept sheep for 10,000 years or better is because of their natural tendencies. These are natural domesticated animal now but they were originally a wild animal not so much different from the way they look. One of the biggest factors about sheep that makes them good as an agricultural animal is their tendency to flock. They will naturally stay as a group. You do not have to make them do this. This is what they do. Here they are all these nice relaxed sheep and they are sitting as a group. If something scares them, they will stay as a group. That is a sheep tendency. Another feature of sheep is that they are a good size. They are a nice sized animal, they are not too big as a cow which is quite large but they are a relatively small animal. This is a young sheep born this year and you can see already she is a good sized animal. She's got some nice wool to her; we'll just move her over here closer to the camera here. But here we have the features of a sheep. Good compact animal produces fiber for clothing, is an excellent source of meat to eat, produces milk when they are bred that can be made into all kinds of things, gives you lots of quality manure which you can then put on your fields and they are an easy animal to care for. You can see they are not afraid of me at all and even in their original state, they were an easy animal for people to take into their pens and keep.