Sheep products: what is obtained from breeding and types of valuable goods

Humanity domesticated sheep as one of the first farm animals, because they provided almost everything that people needed to survive in difficult conditions. From them they received meat, milk, tail fat for food, wool and sheepskin for making warm clothes and blankets. And today, sheep products are highly valued, as they continue to be important to humans.

Wool

People began to domesticate and breed sheep, first of all, because of their high-quality wool. She gave a chance to use not just primitive skins to create clothes, but thin, durable and very warm products.It can be said that the wool of sheep and other domestic animals gave rise to fashion, because the first fabrics made in antiquity were woolen, and only much later materials from plant fibers were mastered.

Centuries of breeding and careful selection have led to the fact that the wool obtained from different breeds of sheep has different characteristics. It can be rough, tough and very durable. But it is also found exceptionally thin, delicate and soft, which is used to create expensive exclusive products.

According to the thickness, which professionals call fineness, wool is divided into more than a dozen classes, starting with “very coarse” and ending with “extra fine”. This allows sheep wool to be used extremely widely - from creating elegant knitwear to dense outerwear, as well as for the manufacture of durable felted materials - felt and felt.

Basic characteristics of sheep wool:

Hygroscopicity - the ability to absorb and retain moisture. Sheep wool can absorb up to 30% moisture, while cotton fibers will retain no more than 8%.
Heat retention. In lambswool, this quality is due to the waviness that creates air pockets that trap heat and make materials perfect for the cold season.
The ability to form a thread, that is, to spin. The wavy structure of the fiber straightens when stretched and combed, then twists with other elements, twisting and forming a strong thread.
The ability to fall off, forming a dense, but quite elastic and very durable material. It is achieved due to the presence of scales on the surface of the wool fibers, which interlock with each other during spinning and form a single web.

Diversity of sheep breeds, producing wool of different quality, provides the textile industry with a wide range of fibers.

Sheep milk

All peoples who historically have long been raising sheep and goats, as well as other dairy cattle, have learned not only to get high-quality milk, but also to cook he althy products with excellent taste from it.In this regard, sheep's milk stands out against the general background. It has excellent technical characteristics, high fat content, up to 9%, as well as a composition rich in vitamins and minerals. From it in countries with centuries-old sheep breeding, original cheeses are made - brynza, feta, ricotta, pecorino, as well as expensive and appreciated by gourmet blue mold cheese - Roquefort.

Lactation lasts up to 150 days, the maximum return of milk falls on the third month. At first, the sheep are milked twice, and then once a day. East Friesian sheep are able to milk up to 260 days a year.

The widespread use of sheep milk products is hindered by numerous factors: geographic, climatic, economic. Sheep give a small amount of milk - within 1.2 liters per milk yield from a lactating female. There are also a number of features associated with the difficulties of milking animals, catering, pasture use, and so on. Nevertheless, the beneficial qualities of sheep's milk and the high palatability of cheeses made from it indicate the need for the development of dairy sheep breeding.

Sheepskins

The skin taken from slaughtered sheep older than six months of age is called sheepskin. This valuable product is obtained from sheep of the following breeds:

Fine fleece.
Semi-fine-fleece.
Semi-coarse.

The first two varieties of breeds are distinguished by a large amount of fluff. In semi-coarse-haired breeds, there is less down than guard and transitional hair. Sheepskins are also divided according to the height of the wool cover into low-wool, semi-wool and wool.

By grades, sheepskins are divided into 4 varieties and 3 categories of product types:

Fur coats, going for the manufacture of sheepskin coats, fur coats and sheepskin coats.
Leather, from sheepskin with rare wool, not suitable for fur coats and other outerwear. But they are used to create different types of leather, including kid, as well as suede and chevro.
Fur sheepskins used to make collars, hats or coats. The following varieties are included in this category:

moire;
steppe lambs (from fat-tailed lambs);
Russian lambs (from lambs not fat-tailed, coarse-haired breeds);
shlenka or webbing;
sak-sak or shaking.

Grading is determined by the number and depth of sheepskin defects (scuffs, cuts, holes, keratinization, and so on).

Smushki

From lambs of the Karakul breed of sheep under the age of 3 months, valuable skins with an unusual pattern of wool in the form of curls are obtained. The cost and quality of smushka is determined by a variety of characteristics, including the following:

Size, shape and color of the skin.
The pattern and elasticity of the curl.
Silky.
Mezdra thickness.
Density of coat and more.

According to the color characteristics of the smushki are divided into the following varieties:

Arabs are black.
Shirazi - grey.
Kombar - brown.
Sur - golden.
Guligaz - pink.

All the skins of karakul sheep, especially smushka, are of high value and are used to make outerwear, hats, collars and decorative items.

One cannot talk about sheep without mentioning dietary meat that does not contain adrenaline released during slaughter of cattle, and fat tail fat, without which it is impossible to imagine most Central Asian dishes.Lamb has an original taste and high nutritional value, and fat tail fat does not freeze at room temperature. A sheep is a real living factory that supplies a person with food and clothes of excellent quality.