Introduction
Ruminant Animals are animals with a
complex stomach unlike the non-ruminants that have simple stomach. They are
animals having four compartment stomach namely: rumen reticulum and abomasums.
They eat and digest forages or plant based feed by swallowing it first and
allowing it to get moistened in the rumem which is the first compartment of the complex stomach. The swallowed food is
later regurgitated by the animal and re-chewed to break down the plant
materials for digestion.
This process is called rumination of chewing the cud.
Examples of ruminant animals are cattle.
Sheep goats camel water buffalo giraffes antelopes to mention but a few.
However we shall limit our discussion in this study to cattle sheep and goats
that are commonly found in our environment.
Ruminant animals are categorized into
two main classes based on their body size namely. The large ruminant animals
and small ruminant animals. Examples of large ruminants are cattle water
buffalo giraffe camel etc while small ruminants are sheep goat antelope etc.
ruminants have an advantage of the ability to eat and utilize law quality fibrous food
that cannot be eaten by human non-ruminants.
ORIGIN AND DOMESTICATION
OF SHEEP
Sheep
was first domesticated in the new stone age. Evidence for the domestication of
sheep dates to 9000 BC in lraq. DNA analysis has shown that domestic sheep are
descended from two ancestor species one of which is the moufflon. The moufflons
comprise ovis musion and Ovis orientalis. Although the second ancestor has not
been identified both the urial and argali have been rules out. The urial (O. vignei) is found from northeastern
run to northwestern india. It has
ahigher number of chromosomes (58) than domestic sheep (54) which makes
it an unlikely ancestor of the latter but it interbreeds with the moufflon. The
arguli sheep (O. ammon) of inner Asia (Tibet, Himalayas. Itay mountains
tien-sha and pamir) has 56 chromosomes and the Siberian snow sheep (Ovis nivcold) has 52 chromosomes. This soay ram demonstrates
the wide variance in sheep traits that
belts the prototypical appearance of te animal. Historical records show that
sheep provided primitive pastoral people with meat wool tallow skin and milk.
Sheep Terminologies
Sheep: the entire ovine species
Lambing: the act of giving birth to lambs in
sheep
Lamb: sexually immature sheep of any
ex
Ewe: female sheep after reaching
sexual maturity or after producing an offspring.
Flock: a group of sheep kept
together
Mutton: meat from mature sheep used as
food
Flecece: another word for wool from sheep.
It is used for clothing
Ram: adult male sheep
Docking: cutting of lamb’s tail keep the
animal clean
Shearing: process of clipping wool from sheep
Tupping: act of mating
Bleating: sound produced
Advantages of sheep
production
As compared to other classes of livestock.
Sheep possesses the following natural advantages.
1.
Sheep
help control weeds.
2.
Sheep
production does not require elaborate facilities and equipment.
3.
They
are particularly good in the utilization of more arid type of grazing
4.
They
are good at utilizing wasteland and are also excellent scavengers.
5.
Sheep
consume roughage as their primary feed.
6.
Compared
to cattle, they produce more liberally in proportion to what consume
7.
Some
breeds, e.g. the wool type produce two products-wool and lamb available for
market at two different periods of the yea.
8.
Their
returns come quickly; lambs may be marketed 8 months after the ewes are bred.
9.
Sheep
droppings are particularly less subjected to wastes because of the way they are
dropped and tramped into the soil.
10.
Their
young ones, if properly fed, may be marketed when about a year old.
11.
Their
energy requirements are lower than those for other livestock enterprises. Also
the energy requirements for fibre production by sheep are lower than those for
synthetic fibres.
12.
Sheep
are highly adaptable an non competitive with humans for feed.
13.
Sheep
are easy to handle and generally require little input.
14.
They
reduce risks of losses to owners by being cheaper to replace.
15.
Subsistence
farmers keeping sheep need very small amounts of purchased animal feed because
their stock can manage on very poor quality roughage if required.
16.
With
a 20% death rate a farmer with five sheep or goats will still have four
animals. Whereas a farmer with one buffalo or cow is likely to be left with
nothing
17.
Sheep
milk is the most nutritious milk on sale in the world today. Because of its
high calcium content, sheep milk is also very good for the prevention of
osteoporosis and for those people already suffering from it.
18.
Sheep
milk is an excellent raw material for the milk processing industry especially
in cheese production.
19.
Sheep
with their small body size high productive capacity and rapid growth rates are ideally
suited to production by resource-poor stallholders.
Disadvantages of sheep production
1.
Sheep
are subject to attack by predators including dogs
2.
They
are less resistant to discases or injuries
3.
Sheep
are susceptible to a number of parasites e.g worms
4.
For
the wool breeds, in the international market have always been politicized and
moreover synthetic fibres is stiff
competition with the wool
5.
Sheep
require better fencing than do cattle.
Procuring foundation
stock for breeding
Ideally foundation breeding stock
should be purchased from reputable sheep breeding farms or government livestock
investigation and Breeding Centres LIBC so as to be certain of their purity
high genetic quality and freedom from diseases. Unfortunately such sources are
too few at present and where they exist, the number of breeding animal
available for sale is limited. This leaves the open market as the main sources
of breeder stock for farmers.
In purchasing animals from the market
major consideration must be given to the animals health age and physical
appearance. The behavior and posture of an animal are reflections of its health
status. Age can be determined from the number and size of teeth. Therefore the
farmer is advised to:
1.
Buy
animals that are from obvious diseases such catarrh. Diarrhea and skin
diseases. Also ensure that animals are free of ectoparasites such as fleas and
ticks on their bodies.
2.
Avoid
animals with physical defects such as lameness. Walk the animal around to find
out blindness and malformations.
3.
A
lean or stunted animal should be avoided. Buy only alert, fine looking and
active animals with bright eyes and fine coat.
4.
Ewes
(female sheep) should be between 1.5 and 3 years of age.
5.
A
-1.5 to 2 year-old sheep has two broad (big) central teeth, a-2 to 2.5 year-old
has 4. While those aged about 3 years have 6 big teeth
6.
Buy
in small batches from many markets in different localities so as to have
animals that are as unrelated as possible and to have genetic variety in your
foundation stock.