Aging Sheep
The age of a sheep is generallly determined by the teeth in its lower jaw (sheep have no teeth in their upper jaw). Lambs have four pairs of incisors that eventually fall out -- like the "baby teeth" in humans -- and make way for permanent incisors. Each pair of permanent teeth is roughly equal to one year of age, so a yearling willl have one pair, a two-year-old will have four permanent teeth, a three-year-old will have six permanent teetch, and by four years a sheep will have a complete set. "The grinding action of chewing wears sheep's teeth," Storey's Barn Guide explains. "As the incisors wear down, the amount of tooth below the gum line is gradually pushed out to help compensate for the wear. By seven or eight years of age, most elderly sheep are "gummers," having lost all of their front teeth.

What Are the Four Stomachs of Sheep?
Next time you are playing Jeopardy! and the category is Livestock Digestive Systems, be prepared for this answer: Rumen, Reticulum, Omasum, Abomasum. Yes, those are the four stomachs in the complex digestive system of sheep. Storey's Barn Guide offers separate charts for the feeding requirements of growing and breeding sheep, an illustrated guide to plants poisonous to the ruminant, and an outline to the principles of pasture rotation.

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