Keeping of Sheep

Sheep have been kept either as part of pastoral livelihoods or as an element of mixed agropastoralism. In the former, they consume grass and woody shrubs that are part of the natural vegetation. Sheep grazing on the coastal meadows (pres sales) of western France has established a standard for high-quality lamb production known throughout the culinary world. When integrated with a farming economy, sheep consume stubble in the fields and, in turn, contribute manure to renew the soil. Sheep are almost never kept in stalls or feedlots as cattle are. Intensive sheep production has lagged far behind that of cattle and pigs.

Where aridity has made agriculture too uncertain or impossible, sheep can survive on sparse wild grasses and woody shrubs. Sheep raising has traditionally been most profitable when natural vegetation on land owned by the community or the state reduced the cost of production. Often, however, the need of such vegetation has involved seasonal movement to find proper forage at all times of the year. In much of the subhumid world, transhumance is the solution to providing livestock with what they need to survive. In the Iberian Peninsula, sheep raising became the most valuable avenue of land use after the introduction of the Merino. The powerful sheep-owners’ organization, the Mesta, obtained priority in deploying their sheep over the countryside. Always in search of more and better pastures, sheep were driven north and south on the Spanish plateau along designated pathways called canadas. The migration of millions of sharp-hoofed animals etched miniature canyons into the land that can still be seen as relict features in the landscape.

Traditional patterns of seasonal sheep movement continue to prevail in the Middle East, North. Africa, and central Asia. In Europe, transhumance between high and low pastures is still practiced, but now sheep may be transported by rail and truck rather than on foot. Transhumance is also found in western North America and southern South America, but more in the form of commercial livestock strategy than cultural adaptation. In all forms of sheepherding, shepherds and dogs remain indispensable, for they protect their defenseless charges not only from predators but also from the sheep’s own mimetic behavior and innate stupidity.