Present and future role of small ruminants in animal agriculture

Abstract

Understanding the role of small ruminants is essential to developing business plans, government policies, and educational and research programs. “Small ruminants” include New World sheep, goats, deer, and camelids. Worldwide, sheep and goats are the main small ruminants in animal agriculture, but farmed llamas, alpacas and deer are important in some countries. This presentation will be about sheep and goats in westernized countries. The "traditional" role of sheep and goats is to provide meat, milk, fiber, skins and wealth. “Traditional” refers to Westernized production systems developed since the late 1800s, and not to subsistence farming. Traditional sheep production includes sheep and lamb production, feeding and grazing systems, and the sale of fattening or slaughter lambs, replacement cattle, cull, wool, and, for dairy sheep, milk through a value chain. established. Specialized industries process lamb, wool, hides, and milk, and the products move through the value chain to end users. A reliable supply of sheep products is required to sustain each link in the value chain and meet consumer demands. The future role of sheep will include supplying products to the traditional value chain, but the value chain must expand to include emerging roles, such as serving immigrant communities with higher discretionary incomes and different preferences for sheep products. Goat production and marketing in some countries is as organized as Westernized sheep production. But in the US, for example, the goat value chain is not well developed, although there are opportunities for a robust goat value chain.