Jacob Lamb

Sheep were the original milking animals of this area. The first Cheddar cheese was made from sheep’s milk.

Jacob sheep have been known as such since the 1700’s, taking their name from the Biblical story of Jacob and his spotted sheep. There is no known connection, however with Middle East sheep.

Their wool has clothed people for thousands of years. Adult sheep are usually sheared in May, when the weather is getting hotter.

Sheep are part of the Bovidae or Cattle family. They chew the cud and have cloven hoofs.

They swallow their food un-chewed and it goes to their first of four stomachs, the reticulum and rumen. Then they bring the fibrous, indigestible parts back up again, along with the stomach gasses, in a big belch and chew it well before swallowing it into their abomasum, or true stomach. The digestible foods are fermented in the rumen and trickle on into the abomasum without further chewing. The fourth stomach is called the omasum.

It requires large amounts of saliva (a cow produces 30 gallons of saliva per day!).