Joyce MacDonald ~ age l2  or Rochester 

Is a lamb born with a long  tail?

Some sheep have been domesticated for at least 5.000 years. Many others have always lived wilds and still do. Naturally. mankind chose the most suitable kind of sheep to domesticate. These were the ones with the softest fleece. Wild sheep have coarser hair and almost none of them have long tails.

There are about 40 different kinds of domesticated sheep. And all of them are born with long tails. It may be that sheep tend to grow long tails when they don’t have to worry about foraging. But every tame baby lamb has a long tail.

What happens to it? For Mamma and Papa Sheep have short tails. There is an old nursery rhyme about what happens Bo‑peeps. as you know lost her sheep but only for a while. Her sheep were really lambs and they had been taken to have their tails bobbed. as are the tails of all domestic lambs.

A sheep tends to store fat and food in that tail when times are good. A certain sheep of Asia is bred for his fatty tail. It may weigh 15 to 80 pounds. Often the shepherd makes a little truck for the sheep to wheel his tail. The fat is used as a butter substitute.