Primary role of the UK sheep industry is quality sheep meat

What are we, a herbivore, facultative carnivore or omnivore and what do these have to do with sheep?

In answer to the above question, in reality nothing, however the primary function of sheep keeping in the UK is to produce meat and that has a lot to do with it. We produce a lot of good quality lamb, hogget and mutton, although we do seem to have a current fixation with the former, at a cost to the two latter, driven, I suspect, by the major retailers; hogget and mutton are both excellent and quite singular products in their own right, but sadly and erroneously, hugely underrated. I have for a long time considered that we should, as a sector, be promoting equally what are three quite distinctive products; rather than the current situation where, too frequently, classifying of a sheep as a hogget (often wrongly), is used simply to discount the finished lambs coming onto the market in the New Year. And this is something that goes right to the heart of the industry, why not have AHDB Beef and Sheep Meat, rather than “Beef and Lamb”?

To get back to the point, while recognising that the industry is not entirely about meat production, we do also have sheep’s milk; a small, but important and probably growing part of the sheep industry, and wool. What can I say about wool? Rather than condemning wool production as a cruel process, there should be a recognition amongst the more environmentally aware/active members of society that wool is a natural product, a product that “runs on grass”, a product that is much more environmentally friendly than all of the petro-chemical dependent synthetic fabrics. Perhaps then we could get a fairer price for our wool, (not blaming the Wool Board, their pricing structure is only a reflection of the global situation).

The primary role of the UK sheep industry is however still the production of quality sheep meat, of red meat, something that, in certain sections of society, has come to be regarded as a bit of an abomination, a judgment that is often based on misinformation, frequently derived from disingenuous, if not fallacious, sources and arguments; repeatedly and ably promulgated by a large section of the popular media.

I have no issues with vegetarians or vegans, dare I say it, a number of friends fall into these categories, particularly the former, they are quite entitled to their own opinions and to pursue their own choice of eating habits, but I do object, strongly, to being told that I am wrong for choosing to include meat (including sheep meat) as part of a healthy and balanced diet.

Is the species Homo sapiens herbivore? (I avoided use of the term “Man” as a general term for humankind, for fear of causing offense and shall remain gender neutral). Most certainly not! There is a saying in evolutionary terms that you “can’t have large guts and large brains”, although there are no doubt some among us trying very hard to prove this wrong, in general we got the brains. The argument being that both brains and guts (i.e. the digestive system) if they are to function effectively, have a very high nutrient demand. Herbivores got the guts e.g. the ruminant, in order to deal with processing large quantities of relatively nutrient light plant materials e.g. grass, but they didn’t get the brains. Sheep, for example, are regarded by many (who really don’t know sheep) as stupid, but it is the term “bovine” that may be used to describe someone as being a bit slow witted. Most of the larger herbivores rely very much on flock or herd intelligence rather than individual intellect; munching ones way through a bit of grass is not exactly mentally challenging. Carnivores however have smaller (monogastric) digestive systems requiring very much less energy to function and meat is nutrient dense, as a result they win with the brains. To develop the skills and ability to hunt, an important part of being a carnivore requires a largish brain and cognitive capacity relative to body size. Some carnivores have gone an evolutionary step further to become facultative carnivores, having developed the capacity to process some plant material as part of their diet, e.g. dogs, foxes, bears etc., a useful facility when game is scarce. Some of the more carnivorous amongst us would no doubt like to consider themselves accordingly, but we, as Homo Sapiens, arrived at where we are now from a different evolutionary direction. For modern man to have evolved as a species with an increasingly large brain over the millennia, required an increasingly nutrient dense diet, not only to provide an abundant supply of energy to fuel the brain but a source of quality protein to provide the essential amino acids required for brain growth and function. An entirely plant based diet would not have sufficed as a result we became omnivores; to nourish our ever increasing brain size and cognitive ability, we needed a nutrient dense diet i.e. we include meat, not just as an important, but essential part of our diet, we became hunter gatherers; without meat Homo Sapiens would not have evolved.

Any livestock producer knows that ruminants i.e. our sheep and cattle are capable, or at least that their gut biome is, of synthesising essential amino acids required to maintain effective growth, health and wellbeing, they will also understand that a pig, as a monogastric, does not benefit from this facility and requires all of it’s essential amino acids to be included in its diet. Some of which are not freely available in entirely plant based rations, i.e. the limiting amino acids, in particular lysine, tryptophan, and threonine; without these a pig will simply not thrive, a pig is an omnivore just like us, in fact pigs are remarkably similar to humans in all sorts of ways, some more so that others. If we deprived a pig of its essential nutrients we would be accused of compromising its welfare, so why should we be happy to deprive ourselves of essential nutrients. If we are going to eat meat why not eat lamb (or hogget or mutton); last week was “Love Lamb” week, but you may have missed it, it was not that well promoted. As an industry we need to promote the consumption of lamb, and hogget and mutton, as part of a balanced and healthy diet; they say lamb consumption is increasing, but this is undoubtedly not reflected in market prices, home demand certainly needs to grow further, particularly at this point in time, but we can’t leave it all to the AHDB Beef and Lamb (and Hogget and Mutton), we can all do our bit, and lots of little bits do add up to quite a big bit; eventually!