• Backliner – an externally applied medicine, applied along the backline of a freshly shorn sheep to control lice or other parasites. In the British Isles called pour-on.
• Bale – a wool pack containing a specified weight of pressed wool
  Wool
  Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
  
   as regulated by industry authorities.
• Bell sheep – a sheep (usually a rough, wrinkly one) caught by a shearer, just before the end of a shearing run.
• Bellwether
  Bellwether
  A bellwether is any entity in a given arena that serves to create or influence trends or to presage future happenings.The term is derived from the Middle English bellewether and refers to the practice of placing a bell around the neck of a castrated ram leading his flock of sheep.The movements of...
  
  – originally an experienced wether given a bell to lead a flock; now mainly used figuratively for a person acting as a lead and guide.
• Black wool – Any wool that is not white, but not necessarily black.
• Board – the floor where the shearing stands are in a wool shed.
• Bolus – an object placed in the reticulum
  Reticulum (anatomy)
  The reticulum is the second chamber in the alimentary canal of a ruminant animal. Anatomically it is considered the smaller half of the reticulorumen along with the rumen. Together these two compartments make up 84% of the volume of the total stomach. The reticulum is located between the rumen and...
  
   of the rumen
  Rumen
  The rumen, also known as a paunch, forms the larger part of the reticulorumen, which is the first chamber in the alimentary canal of ruminant animals. It serves as the primary site for microbial fermentation of ingested feed...
  
  , remaining there for some time or permanently. Used for long-term administration of medicines, or as a secure location for an electronic marking chip.
• Bottle lamb or cade lamb – an orphan lamb reared on a bottle. Also poddy lamb or pet lamb.
• Boxed – when different mobs of sheep are mixed.
• Break – a marked thinning of the fleece, producing distinct weakness in one part of the staple.
• Broken-mouth or broken-mouthed – a sheep which has lost or broken some of its incisor teeth, usually after the age of about six years.
• Broad – wool which is on the strong side for its quality number, or for its type.
• Broomie – a rouseabout
  Roustabout
  A roustabout is a labourer typically performing temporary, unskilled work. The term has traditionally been used to refer to traveling-circus workers, natural gas, or oil rig workers....
  
   in a shearing shed.
• Butt – an underweight bale of greasy wool in a standard wool pack.
• Callipyge
  MEG3
  MEG3 is a maternally expressed, imprinted long non-coding RNA gene. At least 12 different isoforms of MEG3 are generated by alternative splicing. Expression of MEG3 is lost in cancer cells. It acts as a growth suppressor in tumour cells, and activates p53. A pituitary transcript variant has been...
  
  – a natural genetic mutation that produces extremely muscled hindquarters in sheep. These lambs are found in the US and lack tenderness.
• Cast – unable to regain footing, possibly due to lying in a hollow with legs facing uphill and/or having a heavy fleece. Also see riggwelter.
• CFA or cast for age – sheep culled because of their age. Also see cull ewe, killer.
• Clip – all the wool from a flock (in Australian Wool Classing
  Wool classing
  Wool classing is an occupation for which people are trained to produce uniform, predictable, low risk lines of wool. This is carried out by examining the characteristics of the wool in its raw state. The characteristics which a wool classer would examine are:Breed of the sheep: Shedding breeds will...
  
  ).
• Clipping – cutting off the wool: see shearing and rooing.
• Comeback – the progeny of a mating of a Merino
  Merino
  The Merino is an economically influential breed of sheep prized for its wool. Merinos are regarded as having some of the finest and softest wool of any sheep...
  
   with a British longwool sheep.
• Crimp – the natural wave formation seen in wool. Usually the closer the crimps, the finer the wool.
• Cull ewe – a ewe no longer suitable for breeding, and sold for meat. Also see killer.
  
• Crutching
  Crutching
  Crutching refers to the removal of wool from around the tail and between the rear legs of a sheep. It can also refer to removing wool from the heads of sheep or from the bellies of male sheep .-Motivation:...
  
  – shearing parts of a sheep (especially the hind end of some woollier breeds such as Merino
  Merino
  The Merino is an economically influential breed of sheep prized for its wool. Merinos are regarded as having some of the finest and softest wool of any sheep...
  
  ), to prevent fly-strike. Also see dagging.
• Cut-out – the completion of shearing a flock.
• Dags – clumps of dried dung stuck to the wool of a sheep, which may lead to fly-strike. (Hence "rattle your dags!", meaning "hurry up!", especially used in New Zealand
  New Zealand
  New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
  
  .)
• Dagging – clipping off dags. Also see crutching.
• Devil's Grip – a serious conformation defect, appearing as a depression behind the withers.
• Dewlap – the upper fold under the neck of a Merino sheep.
• Dipping – immersing sheep in a plunge or shower dip
  Sheep dip
  Sheep dip is a liquid formulation of insecticide and fungicide which shepherds and farmers may use to protect their sheep from infestation against external parasites such as itch mite , blow-fly, ticks and lice...
  
   to kill external parasites. Backliners are now replacing dipping.
• Downs – breeds of sheep belonging to the short wool group.
• Draft ewe – a ewe too old for rough grazing (such as moorland
  Moorland
  Moorland or moor is a type of habitat, in the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome, found in upland areas, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils and heavy fog...
  
  ), drafted (selected) out of the flock to move to better grazing, usually on another farm. Generally spelt "draft", but in the British Isles
  British Isles
  The British Isles are a group of islands off the northwest coast of continental Europe that include the islands of Great Britain and Ireland and over six thousand smaller isles. There are two sovereign states located on the islands: the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland and...
  
   either as "draft" or "draught".
  
• Drench – an oral veterinary medicine administered by a drenching gun (usually an anthelmintic
  Anthelmintic
  Anthelmintics or antihelminthics are drugs that expel parasitic worms from the body, by either stunning or killing them. They may also be called vermifuges or vermicides .-Pharmaceutical classes:...
  
  ).
• Driving or droving – walking animals from one place to another.
• Dry Sheep Equivalent
  Dry Sheep Equivalent
  Dry Sheep Equivalent is a standard unit frequently used in Australia to compare the feed requirements of different classes of stock or to assess the carrying capacity and potential productivity of a given farm or area of grazing land....
  
  – (DSE) is a standard unit used in Australia to compare the carrying capacity of land, based on the number of Merino
  Merino
  The Merino is an economically influential breed of sheep prized for its wool. Merinos are regarded as having some of the finest and softest wool of any sheep...
  
   sheep it can support.

• Earmark
  Earmark (agriculture)
  An earmark is a cut or mark in the ear of livestock animals such as cattle, deer, pigs, goats, camels or sheep, made to show ownership, year of birth or gender....
  
  – a distinctive mark clipped out of the ear (or sometimes a tattoo inside the ear) to denote ownership and/or age.
• Ear tag – plastic or metal tag clipped to ear, with identification number, name or electronic chip.
• Ewe – a female sheep capable of producing lambs. In areas where "gimmer" or similar terms are used for young females, may refer to a female only after her first lamb. In some areas yow.
• Fleece – the wool
  Wool
  Wool is the textile fiber obtained from sheep and certain other animals, including cashmere from goats, mohair from goats, qiviut from muskoxen, vicuña, alpaca, camel from animals in the camel family, and angora from rabbits....
  
   covering of a sheep.
• Flock – a group of sheep (or goat
  Goat
  The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of...
  
  s). All the sheep on a property (in Australian Wool Classing
  Wool classing
  Wool classing is an occupation for which people are trained to produce uniform, predictable, low risk lines of wool. This is carried out by examining the characteristics of the wool in its raw state. The characteristics which a wool classer would examine are:Breed of the sheep: Shedding breeds will...
  
  ); also all the sheep in a region or country. Sometimes called herd
  Herd
  Herd refers to a social grouping of certain animals of the same species, either wild or domestic, and also to the form of collective animal behavior associated with this or as a verb, to herd, to its control by another species such as humans or dogs.The term herd is generally applied to mammals,...
  
  or mob.
• Flushing – providing especially nutritious feed in the few weeks before mating to improve fertility, or in the period before birth to increase lamb birth-weight.
• Flushing (eggs/embryo) – removing unfertilised or fertilised egg from an animal; often as part of an embryo transfer
  Embryo transfer
  Embryo transfer refers to a step in the process of assisted reproduction in which embryos are placed into the uterus of a female with the intent to establish a pregnancy...
  
   procedure.
• Fly strike or myiasis
  Myiasis
  Myiasis is a general term for infection by parasitic fly larvae feeding on the host's necrotic or living tissue. Colloquialisms for myiasis include flystrike, blowfly strike, and fly-blown. In Greek, "myia" means fly....
  
  – infestation of the wool, skin and eventually flesh with blowfly maggots, rapidly causing injury or death. Usually (but not always) occurs where the wool has become contaminated by dung or urine, or at the site of an injury. Also see crutching, dagging, Mulesing.
• Fold (or sheepfold) – a pen in which a flock is kept overnight to keep the sheep safe from predators, or to allow the collection of dung for manure
  Manure
  Manure is organic matter used as organic fertilizer in agriculture. Manures contribute to the fertility of the soil by adding organic matter and nutrients, such as nitrogen, that are trapped by bacteria in the soil...
  
  .
• Folding – confining sheep (or other livestock
  Livestock
  Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
  
  ) onto a restricted area for feeding, such as a temporarily fenced part of a root crop field, especially when done repeatedly onto a sequence of areas.
• Foot rot
  Foot rot
  Foot rot, or infectious pododermatitis, is a hoof infection commonly found in sheep, goats, and cattle. As the name suggests, it rots away the foot of the animal, more specifically the area between the two toes of the affected animal. It is extremely painful and contagious. It can be treated with...
  
  – infectious pododermatitis, a painful hoof disease commonly found in sheep (also goats and cattle), especially when pastured on damp ground.
• Gimmer – a young female sheep, usually before her first lamb (especially used in the north of England
  England
  England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
  
   and Scotland
  Scotland
  Scotland is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. Occupying the northern third of the island of Great Britain, it shares a border with England to the south and is bounded by the North Sea to the east, the Atlantic Ocean to the north and west, and the North Channel and Irish Sea to the...
  
  ). Also theave.
• Graziers' alert or graziers' warning – a cold-weather warning issued by the weather bureau to sheep graziers.
• Greasy – a sheep shearer.
• Greasy wool – wool as it has been shorn from the sheep and therefore not yet washed or cleaned. Also see lanolin.
• Guard llama
  Guard llama
  A guard llama is a llama used in farming to protect sheep, alpacas, goats or other livestock from coyotes, dogs and other predators. Typically, a single gelded male is used.-Guarding:...
  
  – a llama (usually a castrated male) kept with sheep as a guard. The llama will defend the flock from predators such as fox
  Fox
  Fox is a common name for many species of omnivorous mammals belonging to the Canidae family. Foxes are small to medium-sized canids , characterized by possessing a long narrow snout, and a bushy tail .Members of about 37 species are referred to as foxes, of which only 12 species actually belong to...
  
  es and dog
  Dog
  The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
  
  s.
• Hefting (or heafing) – the instinct
  Instinct
  Instinct or innate behavior is the inherent inclination of a living organism toward a particular behavior.The simplest example of an instinctive behavior is a fixed action pattern, in which a very short to medium length sequence of actions, without variation, are carried out in response to a...
  
   in some breeds of keeping to a certain heft (a small local area) throughout their lives. Allows different farmers in an extensive landscape such as moorland
  Moorland
  Moorland or moor is a type of habitat, in the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome, found in upland areas, characterised by low-growing vegetation on acidic soils and heavy fog...
  
   to graze different areas without the need for fences, each ewe remaining on her particular area. Lambs usually learn their heft from their mothers.
• Hogget or hogg – a young sheep of either sex from about 9 to 18 months of age (until it cuts two teeth). Also the meat of a hogget. Also teg, old-season lamb, shearling.
• Hoof-shears – implement similar to secateurs, used to trim the hoofs of sheep.
• In lamb – pregnant.
• Joining – the placing of rams with ewes for mating
  Mating
  In biology, mating is the pairing of opposite-sex or hermaphroditic organisms for copulation. In social animals, it also includes the raising of their offspring. Copulation is the union of the sex organs of two sexually reproducing animals for insemination and subsequent internal fertilization...
  
   (see tupping).
• Ked, or sheep ked – Melophagus ovinus
  Melophagus ovinus
  Melophagus ovinus, or the sheep ked, is a brown, hairy fly that resembles a tick. This wingless fly is about 4 to 6 mm long and has a small head, is a fly from the family Hippoboscidae. They are blood-feeding parasites of sheep. The legs of the sheep ked are very strong and are tipped with...
  
  , a species of louse-fly
  Hippoboscidae
  Hippoboscidae, the louse flies or keds are obligate parasites of mammals and birds. In this family there are winged species which can fly at least reasonably well, as well as others with vestigial or no wings which are flightless and highly apomorphic...
  
  , a nearly flightless biting fly infesting sheep.
• Kemp – a short, white, hollow, hairy fibre usually found about the head and legs of sheep.
• Killer – a sheep that has been selected for slaughter on an Australian property. Also see cull ewe.
• Lamb – a young sheep in its first year. In many eastern countries there is a looser use of the term which may include hoggets. Also the meat
  Lamb (food)
  Lamb, mutton, and hogget are the meat of domestic sheep. The meat of a sheep in its first year is lamb; that of a juvenile sheep older than 1 year is hogget; and the meat of an adult sheep is mutton....
  
   of younger sheep.
• Lambing – the process of giving birth in sheep. Also the work of tending lambing ewes (shepherds are said to lamb their flocks).
• Lambing jug or lambing pen – a small pen to confine ewes and newly born lambs.
• Lamb marking – the work of earmarking, docking
  Docking (animal)
  Docking is a term for the intentional removal of part of an animal's tail or ears. The term cropping is also used, though more commonly in reference to the cropping of ears, while docking more commonly—but not exclusively—refers to the tail. The term tailing is also commonly used...
  
   and castration
  Castration
  Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses the functions of the testicles or a female loses the functions of the ovaries.-Humans:...
  
   of lambs.
• Lambing percentage – the number of lambs successfully reared in a flock compared with the number of ewes that have been mated – effectively a measure of the success of lambing and the number of multiple births. May vary from around 100% in a hardy mountain flock (where a ewe may not be able to rear more than one lamb safely), to 150% or more in a well-fed lowland flock (whose ewes can more easily support twins or even triplets).
• Lamb's fry – lamb's liver (as food).
• Lamb fries
  Lamb fries
  Lamb fries are lamb testicles used as food.One popular dish in the United States serves them breaded and fried.Lamb testicles are served in a variety of cuisines, including Italian, Persian,, American Basque, barbecue, Chinese, Russian, Turkish, etc....
  
  – lamb testicles when served as food.
• Lanolin
  Lanolin
  Lanolin , also called Adeps Lanae, wool wax or wool grease, is a yellow waxy substance secreted by the sebaceous glands of wool-bearing animals. Most lanolin used by humans comes from domestic sheep...
  
  – a thick yellow greasy substance in wool, secreted by the sheep's skin. Also called wool fat, wool wax, wool grease, adeps lanae or yolk. Extracted from raw wool and used for various purposes.
• Livestock guardian dog
  Livestock guardian dog
  A livestock guardian dog is a domesticated canine used to defend livestock against predators. LGDs are commonly referred to as "sheep dogs" since they most often have guarded flocks of sheep, but most are capable of guarding other species of livestock. They are classified as pastoral dogs...
  
  – a dog bred and trained to guard sheep from predators such as bear
  Bear
  Bears are mammals of the family Ursidae. Bears are classified as caniforms, or doglike carnivorans, with the pinnipeds being their closest living relatives. Although there are only eight living species of bear, they are widespread, appearing in a wide variety of habitats throughout the Northern...
  
  s, wolves, people or other dog
  Dog
  The domestic dog is a domesticated form of the gray wolf, a member of the Canidae family of the order Carnivora. The term is used for both feral and pet varieties. The dog may have been the first animal to be domesticated, and has been the most widely kept working, hunting, and companion animal in...
  
  s. Usually a large type of dog, often white and woolly, apparently to allow them to blend in with the sheep. Sometimes given a spiked collar to prevent attack by wolves or dogs. Does not usually muster the sheep. Sometimes called a sheepdog – but also see separate entry for this.
• Lug mark – local term in Cumbria
  Cumbria
  Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
  
   for earmark.

• Marking knife – a knife with a clamp or hook made for lamb marking.
• Myiasis – see fly strike.
• Micron – one millionth of a metre, a measure of fibre diameter of wool in wool measurement. Term used in preference to "micrometre
  Micrometre
  A micrometer , is by definition 1×10-6 of a meter .In plain English, it means one-millionth of a meter . Its unit symbol in the International System of Units is μm...
  
  ", the SI
  International System of Units
  The International System of Units is the modern form of the metric system and is generally a system of units of measurement devised around seven base units and the convenience of the number ten. The older metric system included several groups of units...
  
   name for the same unit.
• Mob – a group or cohort of sheep of the same breed that have run together under similar environmental conditions since the previous shearing (in Australian Wool Classing
  Wool classing
  Wool classing is an occupation for which people are trained to produce uniform, predictable, low risk lines of wool. This is carried out by examining the characteristics of the wool in its raw state. The characteristics which a wool classer would examine are:Breed of the sheep: Shedding breeds will...
  
  ).
• Monorchid – a male mammal with only one descended testicle
  Testicle
  The testicle is the male gonad in animals. Like the ovaries to which they are homologous, testes are components of both the reproductive system and the endocrine system...
  
  , the other being retained internally. Monorchid sheep are less fertile than full rams, but have leaner meat than wethers.
• Mule
  Mule (sheep)
  In sheep farming, the term Mule is used to refer to a cross between a lowland ram and a purebred upland ewe....
  
  – a type of cross-bred sheep, both hardy and suitable for meat (especially in northern England
  England
  England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
  
  ). Usually bred from a Bluefaced Leicester ram on hardy mountain ewes such as Swaledale
  Swaledale
  Swaledale is one of the northernmost dales in the Yorkshire Dales National Park in northern England. It is the dale of the River Swale on the east side of the Pennines in North Yorkshire.-Geographical overview:...
  
  s. May be qualified according to the female parent: for example a Welsh Mule is from a Blue-faced Leicester ram and a Welsh Mountain ewe.
• Mulesing
  Mulesing
  Mulesing is a skilled surgical task that involves the removal of strips of wool-bearing skin from around the breech of a sheep to prevent flystrike in regions where it is common....
  
  – a practice in Australia
  Australia
  Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
  
   of cutting off wrinkles from the crutch area of Merino
  Merino
  The Merino is an economically influential breed of sheep prized for its wool. Merinos are regarded as having some of the finest and softest wool of any sheep...
  
  s, to prevent fly strike. Controversial, and illegal in some parts of the world. Named after a Mr Mules.
• Mustering – the round up of livestock
  Livestock
  Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...
  
   for inspection or other purposes.
• Mutton – the meat
  Lamb (food)
  Lamb, mutton, and hogget are the meat of domestic sheep. The meat of a sheep in its first year is lamb; that of a juvenile sheep older than 1 year is hogget; and the meat of an adult sheep is mutton....
  
   of an older ewe or wether. May also refer to goat
  Goat
  The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of...
  
   meat in eastern countries. Derived from the Anglo-Norman French
  Anglo-Norman language
  Anglo-Norman is the name traditionally given to the kind of Old Norman used in England and to some extent elsewhere in the British Isles during the Anglo-Norman period....
  
   word mouton ("sheep").
• NSM – not station
  Station (Australian agriculture)
  Station is the term for a large Australian landholding used for livestock production. It corresponds to the North American term ranch or South American estancia...
  
   mated. A term used in sale advertisements indicating that those ewes have not been mated.
• Off shears – sheep have been recently shorn.
• Old-season lamb – a lamb a year old or more. Also hogget, shearling, teg.
• Orf
  Orf (animal disease)
  Orf is an exanthemous disease caused by a parapox virus and occurring primarily in sheep and goats. It is also known as contagious pustular dermatitis, infectious labial dermatitis, ecthyma contagiosum, and sheep pox, thistle disease and scabby mouth...
  
  , scabby mouth or contagious ecthyma – a highly contagious viral disease of sheep (and goats) attacking damaged skin areas around the mouth and causing sores, usually affecting lambs in their first year of life.
• Plain bodied – a sheep that has relatively few body wrinkles.
• Poddy lamb, bottle lamb or pet lamb – an orphan lamb reared on a bottle. Also cade lamb, or placer.
  
• Pour-on – see backliner.
• Raddle – coloured pigment used to mark sheep for various reasons, such as to show ownership, or to show which lambs belong to which ewe. May be strapped to the chest of a ram, to mark the backs of ewes he mates (different rams may be given different colours). Also a verb ("that ewe's been raddled"). Also ruddy.
• Ram – an uncastrated
  Castration
  Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses the functions of the testicles or a female loses the functions of the ovaries.-Humans:...
  
   adult male sheep. Also tup.
• Riggwelter – a sheep that has fallen onto its back and is unable to get up (usually because of the weight of its fleece).
• Ring – a mob of sheep moving around in a circle.
• Ringing – the removal of a circle of wool from around the pizzle of a male sheep.
• Rooing – removing the fleece by hand-plucking. Done once a year in late spring, when the fleece begins to moult naturally, especially in some breeds, such as Shetlands.
• Rouseabout – (often abbreviated to 'rousie'), shedhands who pick up fleeces after they have been removed during shearing
  Sheep shearing
  Sheep shearing, shearing or clipping is the process by which the woollen fleece of a sheep is cut off. The person who removes the sheep's wool is called a shearer. Typically each adult sheep is shorn once each year...
  
  . See also broomie above.
• Ruddy – local Cumbria
  Cumbria
  Cumbria , is a non-metropolitan county in North West England. The county and Cumbria County Council, its local authority, came into existence in 1974 after the passage of the Local Government Act 1972. Cumbria's largest settlement and county town is Carlisle. It consists of six districts, and in...
  
  n term for raddle.
  
• Scab or sheep scab – a type of mange
  Mange
  Mange is the common name for a class of persistent contagious skin diseases caused by parasitic mites. Since mites also infect plants, birds, and reptiles, the term "mange," suggesting poor condition of the hairy coat due to the infection, is sometimes reserved only for pathological...
  
   in sheep, a skin disease caused by attack by the sheep scab mite Psoroptes ovis, a psoroptid
  Psoroptidia
  Psoroptidia is a suborder of the Acari group Astigmatina. It comprises around 40 families, and apparently originated as parasites of birds, before a secondary radiation saw some taxa become parasites of mammals...
  
   mite.
• Scabby mouth – see orf above.
• Scrapie
  Scrapie
  Scrapie is a fatal, degenerative disease that affects the nervous systems of sheep and goats. It is one of several transmissible spongiform encephalopathies , which are related to bovine spongiform encephalopathy and chronic wasting disease of deer. Like other spongiform encephalopathies, scrapie...
  
  – a wasting disease of sheep and goats, a transmissible spongiform encephalopathy
  Transmissible spongiform encephalopathy
  Transmissible spongiform encephalopathies , also known as prion diseases, are a group of progressive conditions that affect the brain and nervous system of many animals, including humans. According to the most widespread hypothesis they are transmitted by prions, though some other data suggest an...
  
   (TSE, like BSE
  Bovine spongiform encephalopathy
  Bovine spongiform encephalopathy , commonly known as mad-cow disease, is a fatal neurodegenerative disease in cattle that causes a spongy degeneration in the brain and spinal cord. BSE has a long incubation period, about 30 months to 8 years, usually affecting adult cattle at a peak age onset of...
  
   of cattle) and believed to be caused by a prion
  Prion
  A prion is an infectious agent composed of protein in a misfolded form. This is in contrast to all other known infectious agents which must contain nucleic acids . The word prion, coined in 1982 by Stanley B. Prusiner, is a portmanteau derived from the words protein and infection...
  
  . Efforts have been made in some countries to breed for sheep genotype
  Genotype
  The genotype is the genetic makeup of a cell, an organism, or an individual usually with reference to a specific character under consideration...
  
  s resistant to scrapie.
• Shearing
  Sheep shearing
  Sheep shearing, shearing or clipping is the process by which the woollen fleece of a sheep is cut off. The person who removes the sheep's wool is called a shearer. Typically each adult sheep is shorn once each year...
  
  – cutting off the fleece, normally done in two pieces by skilled shearers. A sheep may be said to have been either sheared or shorn, depending on dialect. Also clipping.
• Shearling – a yearling sheep before its first shearing. Also hogget, old-season lamb, teg.
• Sheepdog
  Herding dog
  A herding dog, also known as a stock dog or working dog, is a type of pastoral dog that either has been trained in herding or belongs to breeds developed for herding...
  
   or shepherd dog – a dog used to move and control sheep, often very highly trained. Other types of dog may be used just to guard sheep (see livestock guarding dog), and these are sometimes also called sheepdogs.
• Sheep – the species, or members of it. The plural is the same as the singular, and it can also be used as a mass noun
  Mass noun
  In linguistics, a mass noun is a noun that refers to some entity as an undifferentiated unit rather than as something with discrete subsets. Non-count nouns are best identified by their syntactic properties, and especially in contrast with count nouns. The semantics of mass nouns are highly...
  
  . Normally used of individuals of any age, but in some areas only for those of breeding age.
• Sheepwalk – an area of rough grazing occupied by a particular flock or forming part of a particular farm.
• Shepherd
  Shepherd
  A shepherd is a person who tends, feeds or guards flocks of sheep.- Origins :Shepherding is one of the oldest occupations, beginning some 6,000 years ago in Asia Minor. Sheep were kept for their milk, meat and especially their wool...
  
  – a stockperson or farmer who looks after sheep while they are in the pasture.
• Shepherding – the act of shepherding sheep, or sheep husbandry
  Sheep husbandry
  Sheep husbandry is a subcategory of animal husbandry specifically dealing with the raising and breeding of domestic sheep. Sheep farming is primarily based on raising lambs for meat, or raising sheep for wool. Sheep may also be raised for milk or to sell to other farmers.-Shelter and...
  
   more generally.
• Shornie – a freshly shorn sheep.
• Shepherd's crook – a staff with a hook at one end, used to catch sheep by the neck or leg (depending on type).
• Slink – a very young lamb.

• Stag – a ram castrated after about 6 months of age.
• Staple – a group of wool fibres that formed a cluster or lock.
• Store – a sheep (or other meat animal) in good average condition, but not fat. Usually bought by dealers to fatten for resale.
• Sucker – an unweaned lamb.
• Teg – a sheep in its second year. Also hogget, old-season lamb, shearling.
• Theave or theaf (plural of either: theaves) – a young female sheep, usually before her first lamb (used especially in lowland England
  England
  England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
  
  ). Also gimmer.
• Top knot – wool from the forehead or poll of a sheep.
• Tup – an alternative term for ram.
• Tupping – mating
  Mating
  In biology, mating is the pairing of opposite-sex or hermaphroditic organisms for copulation. In social animals, it also includes the raising of their offspring. Copulation is the union of the sex organs of two sexually reproducing animals for insemination and subsequent internal fertilization...
  
   in sheep, or the mating season (autumn, for a spring-lambing flock).
• Weaner – a young animal that has been weaned, from its mother, until it is about a year old.
• Wether – a castrated
  Castration
  Castration is any action, surgical, chemical, or otherwise, by which a male loses the functions of the testicles or a female loses the functions of the ovaries.-Humans:...
  
   male sheep (or goat
  Goat
  The domestic goat is a subspecies of goat domesticated from the wild goat of southwest Asia and Eastern Europe. The goat is a member of the Bovidae family and is closely related to the sheep as both are in the goat-antelope subfamily Caprinae. There are over three hundred distinct breeds of...
  
  ).
• Wigging – the removal of wool from around a sheep's eyes to prevent wool-blindness.
• Wool-blindness – when excessive wool growth interferes with the normal sight of a sheep.
• Wool-grease – see lanolin.
• Wool pack – a standard-sized woven nylon container manufactured to industry specifications for the transportation of wool.
• Woolsack
  Woolsack
  The Woolsack is the seat of the Lord Speaker in the House of Lords, the Upper House of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. From the Middle Ages until 2006, the presiding officer in the House of Lords was the Lord Chancellor and the Woolsack was usually mentioned in association with the office of...
  
  – a ceremonial cushion used by the Lord Speaker
  Lord Speaker
  The Lord Speaker is the speaker of the House of Lords in the Parliament of the United Kingdom. The office is analogous to the Speaker of the House of Commons: the Lord Speaker is elected by the members of the House of Lords and is expected to be politically impartial.Until July 2006, the role of...
  
   of the UK House of Lords
  House of Lords
  The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster....
  
  , filled with wool to symbolise the importance of the wool trade for the prosperity of the country.
• Yoke – two crossed pieces of timber or a forked branch fixed to the neck of a habitually straying sheep in an attempt to prevent it breaking through hedges and fences.
• Yolk (ˈjoʊk) – see lanolin.
• Yow (ˈjaʊ) – local form of ewe in some areas.

See also

• Domestic sheep
  Domestic sheep
  Sheep are quadrupedal, ruminant mammals typically kept as livestock. Like all ruminants, sheep are members of the order Artiodactyla, the even-toed ungulates. Although the name "sheep" applies to many species in the genus Ovis, in everyday usage it almost always refers to Ovis aries...
  
  
• Sheep husbandry
  Sheep husbandry
  Sheep husbandry is a subcategory of animal husbandry specifically dealing with the raising and breeding of domestic sheep. Sheep farming is primarily based on raising lambs for meat, or raising sheep for wool. Sheep may also be raised for milk or to sell to other farmers.-Shelter and...
  
  
• Yan Tan Tethera
  Yan Tan Tethera
  Yan Tan Tethera is a sheep counting rhyme traditionally used by shepherds in Northern England. Until the Industrial Revolution, the use of traditional number systems was common among shepherds, especially in the dales of the Lake District. The Yan Tan Tethera system was also used for counting...
  
  (numbers for counting sheep)

External links

• A Glossary of sheep terms from the American Sheep Industry Association