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"G stands for goat and also
For genius . . ."
-Kenneth Rexroth

From earliest times goats and sheep have played a major role in human civilization. As stable sources of food, former hunting peoples were able to settle in larger permanent communities as fewer people were required to produce sufficient food for survival. Their populations grew, social and political organizations developed, and cultures evolved.

Both sheep and goats are sure footed grazing animals, able to live on arid land, producing milk, meat, leather, fleece, even serving as beasts of burden. Numerous sayings in the English language reflect the importance these animals played: kidding around, feeling sheepish, like a lamb, get your goat, and much more.

Sheep were probably domesticated around 11,000 years ago in what is now northern Iraq. They are the most widely distributed domestic animal, found in nearly all countries of the world. More than 800 breeds of domesticated sheep have been developed. The have adapted to environments ranging from desert to the tropics. Goats and sheep belong to the same family as cattle, Bovidae. Goats and sheep are closely related cloven-hoofed, horned mammals distinguished by cud-chewing and four-part stomachs. There are eight species of animals known as goats, living both in the wild and domesticated.

What is the difference between sheep and goats?

• Sheep have fleece, goats hair
• Goats have horns, many sheep are naturally hornless
• Goats are smarter than sheep
• Sheep are more likely to overeat than goats
• Sheep graze, goats browse
• Sheep are more skittish around people than goats unless given plenty of handling at a young age

Thanks to the Irvine Mesa Charros 4-H Club, Irvine, CA

What is a Ruminant?
Don’t feel sheepish if you don’t know what a ruminant is. We won’t get your goat about it either. No kidding!

Ruminants include any of various hoofed, even-toed, usually horned mammals of the suborder Ruminantia, such as cattle, sheep, goats, camels, deer, and giraffes. In that company, it is easy to see why sheep and goats are often referred to as "small ruminants." They characteristically have a stomach divided into four compartments and chew a cud consisting of regurgitated, partially digested food.