SC - Lamb!!! (and kids)

[Alderton, Philippa]

> I'm referring to the high percentage of prolapsed uteri. With pigs,
> you  have an occasional sow who lies on her piglets, or tries to eat 
them,
> but  modern pens generally prevent that. I don't even try to talk to my 
vet
> during lambing around here unless it's an absolute emergency.
>
> phlip at morganco.net

>Well, several sets of twins per ewe and we never had problems with that.
>maybe it is one of theose inbred things, we has wesleydale dorset ewes
>and a romney ram. got to love that hybrid vigor!
>margali

Margali, I think phil is concerned with the effort per volume.  Your 
sheep may not be much trouble for the volume of meat they give you.  But 
if you tried to get the volume of meat which the same number of pigs 
would give you, it would be considerable trouble. One pig is going to 
have 10-20 piglets a year, and not all in the spring.  The piglets can be 
raised for a short while and then sold or eaten.  A sheep is going to 
have one or maybe two lambs almost exclusively in spring.  Unless you can 
use or sell the wool, sheep is a pretty expensive meat resource: one or 
two lamb feasts per year, and eventually a lot of mutton stew.   Pigs can 
provide sucklings for dinner or sale almost the year round, and 
eventually meat that preserves well.  OK, I guess all meats preserve 
equally well, but I've never heard smoked, pickled  or salted mutton 
being sold in any volume during the modern era or earlier.  

Admittedly,  I'm thinking of traditional farms where every animal had to 
earn their keep.  There may well be factory farms these days that somehow 
produce lamb year round in enough quantity to make a profit without 
needing to go to the trouble of  the shearing process after the 
additional effort of making sure the wool ends up a good enough quality 
to sell.  And I am definately speaking from a non-sheep culture.  Once 
mill-produced fabric became available soon after the Revolutionary war,  
farms in the southeastern U.S. ceased keeping the few sheep necessary for 
having enough wool for household use.  I can only figure that as a meat 
producer, sheep just don't cut it, but if you live in a country or region 
dedicated to producing wool (or raise your own wool), you'll end up with 
lambs as a bonus, and mutton later.  
Anne

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