Facts About Sheep

Series Summary

Sheep are colloquially accepted as some of the dumbest farm animals in existence—it’s no compliment when someone refers to you as a “sheep,” or phonates a condescending “baa” in your direction. Ironically, this common insult tends to suggest that the many city-dwelling laypeople who wield their minuscule knowledge of animal husbandry as an epithet get most or all of their ideas from television and the movies. Perhaps herd mentality is a sign of low intelligence then…or perhaps one might want to recant such beliefs and take a moment to learn the truth about the everyday life of the noble, woolly sheep.

In these free videos on raising farm animals, learn some of the basic facts about sheep. Our expert naturalist will discuss the major characteristics of this bovine species, including different types of sheep, types and colors of wool, eating habits and digestion (it is a ruminant animal), how to raise and handle a sheep, how to go about buying a sheep of your own, signs of disease, when to shear, how to tell a ewe and a ram apart, and how to breed sheep.

Who knows—after watching these clips, you may find the word “sheep” to have a whole new meaning.

Video Transcript

"Okay so sheep have been around for probably 10,000 years as a domestic animal. They are thought to be the original domestic farm animal. We won't talk about dogs but sheep have been around forever and they are very important to the history of agriculture. And they are important to us today. Today we will talk about types of sheep, how to recognize sheep, what we know about sheep, why people keep sheep and how to tell a sheep from a goat which is also a common question and various sundry other things. Sheep has ruminants, sheep are wool producers, sheep has meat, sheep are milk producers. There are many many reasons to keep a sheep and often people have a sheep or two on their land because they are also a very easy animal. They are not very demanding in terms of what they need to keep them healthy and happy. "