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The United Kingdom has the largest sheep industry in Europe
and with it comes a mass of some 80 breeds and considerable inputs into
the breeding,
production and marketing fields. Recent census data for summer 2006 (Defra
and USDA) show that the UK estimate in June was that it had some 16.45
million breeding females and 1.04 million other sheep over 1 year old
(rams, etc) and 16.89 million lambs less than 1 year old, giving a total
population of 34.38 million sheep.
By comparison, the USA had 7.77 million
sheep in July of which breeding sheep numbered 4.64 million, 3.14 million
'market sheep' and the 2006
lamb crop was projected to be 4.1 million.
For more information about
British sheep genetics, markets with certifcation for imports and members
of the BLG Consortium see: www.britishlivestockgenetics.com
[8 Oct 06]
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