Sheep breeding is quite widespread today. Such animals are grown both on subsidiary farms and on an industrial scale, but with all this, not every breeder knows the exact life expectancy of sheep. But this information can be a significant help in breeding animals.
Sheep breeding
Accurate information about how many sheep live will allow not only to plan the breeding process more carefully, but also to avoid fraud when buying an animal. Knowing the age of the cattle, you can immediately determine whether it will be rational to buy it and how long the sheep will be productive.
The life expectancy of sheep suggests rather vague values that depend on a number of factors. The main ones among them are:
- breed affiliation;
- the composition of the diet;
- animal breeding conditions;
- special purpose.
In accordance with the first paragraph, English sheep are the undisputed champions.
Reference. There are officially recorded cases when a representative of this breed lived to be 29 years old, and at the age of 28 she also gave birth to a healthy lamb. Of course, this case is only an exception to the rule.
Other sheep live much less: by the age of 17-20 years, their teeth are almost completely worn out, respectively, they cannot eat properly, which quickly leads to the death of the animal. If the flock is also grazed in areas with sandy soil, the erasure appears much faster.
In subsidiary and industrial farms, the period of life of an animal is controlled by a person in accordance with its intended purpose and peak productivity:
- It is rational to slaughter sheep for meat at the age of 2-3 years. After that, meat products gradually lose their taste.
- The highest level of milk productivity in living creatures occurs by the age of 6-8 years and then declines. Accordingly, a sheep is kept up to 10-12 years.
- To obtain wool, sheep are bred for 10-15 years.
Another area of breeding such animals is getting healthy young animals for sale. Puberty in most breeds occurs at the age of 5 months, but they are allowed to mate only after reaching a year, while each breeder personally determines how many lambs and rams to keep for this purpose.
Thus, under ideal conditions, the average life expectancy of a sheep is 23-25 years, but in practice this result is extremely difficult to achieve. In addition, such small cattle are bred for meat, milk or wool, therefore, after a drop in productivity in this regard, it is unprofitable to raise a sheep further, which further reduces its lifespan.
