Lamb vs. Sheep

What is Lamb?

Lamb is a young sheep that is below than the age of one year and best known for its demand for tender meat. Most of the people confused the word sheep and lamb for the same word and the same animal. However, there are lots of differences between these two. If talk about the apparent differences then lamb contains less wool as compared to the sheep. Moreover, both domestic and wild grown lambs have no horns at all.

These heavily relies on mother’s milk and don’t eat as much grass as sheep use. In a simple world, lamb can be understood as a sheep in its first year. Its meat is more expensive as compared to sheep and other mutton based animals. In recent years, the demand for its meat has increased because its meat is tenderer as compared to the meat of most of the animals. Although the demand for lamb is high because of its meat, it has no significant contribution in livestock because of low production for meat, wool and no production for milk at all. In Christianity, lamb has religious value. In Christianity, the Lamb of God is a title used for Jesus.

What is Sheep?

Belongs to the Ovis aries species, sheep is a ruminant mammal that is up grown for livestock purpose. Sheep has a greater share in the livestock industry across the globe because of its meat and milk. Most of the people confuse between sheep and lamb. The apparent main difference between both is that the first one is over one year of age while later on is below the age of one year. Moreover, the meat of sheep is gemmy and need to be skewed first to get tenderize.

Domestic sheep are also different from wild sheep as these are relatively small ruminants having crimpled hair also known as wool. Moreover, these also comprise of horns in shape of a lateral spiral. However, most of the domestic sheep that are breed by humans have no horns at all. The other unique difference between domestic sheep and wild sheep is that they are now bred in multiple colors while wild sheep are still available in variations of brown hues. Domestic sheep color can range from dark chocolate brown to white and even spotted and piebald. It has the largest share in the livestock because of milk and meat. Sheep is given status in Islam when Abraham was slaughtering his son Ismail, and it was changed with sheep slaughtering by angel Gabriel.

Key Differences between Lamb and Sheep

The Key Differences between Lamb and Sheep between Lamb vs. Sheep are given below:

1. Young male sheep called a ram while the young male lamb is called a ram lamb.
2. Young female sheep is called as ewe while the young female lamb is called a ewe
3. A group of lamb is called flock while a group of sheep is called mobs or bands in addition to the flock.
4. Sheep is the main species and denotes those Ovis species while the lamb is the sub-species.
5. The meat of a lamb is tenderer as compared to that of sheep.
6. The demand for lamb meat is higher than that of sheep.
7. The dieting habits of sheep and lamb are also different. The first one relies on the legumes and grass while the later one relies heavily on a fat diet especially mother’s milk.
8. Sheep don’t drink mother’s milk while lamb drinks mother’s milk.
9. Sheep has more wool as compared to lamb.
10. Sheep has a long tail as compared to lamb.
11. Lamb meat is more reddish comparatively sheep meat.
12. Sheep can be used for milk and meat while lamb has no other purpose except meat.
13. Sheep is used for getting wool, and it contains more wool as compared to lamb.
14. Lamb is slaughtered when it is between four to twelve months while sheep is slaughtered when it is over one year of age.
15. Lamb meat is of mild flavor and is more versatile as compared to that of sheep meat.
16. Sheep’s meat is much fatter as compared to lamb meat.
17. Lamb meat is naturally tender while sheep meat is often stewed to get tenderize
18. Sheep has a greater contribution to livestock while lamb has no such significance except meat in some part of the world.
19. Sheep’s meat is cheaper than lamb meat.
20. Sheep has strong teeth or incisors to ear grass while lamb has milk teeth as it relies on the mother’s milk.
21. In Christianity, lamb has religious value, but there is no such status of sheep exists. Sheep is given status in Islam when Abraham was slaughtering his son Ismail, and it was changed with sheep slaughtering by angel Gabriel.
22. Sheep have horns forming a lateral spiral while lambs don’t have horns at all.
23. The meat of a lamb is called as hogget while the meat of sheep is called as mutton in addition to hogget.

Comparison Video