this post was submitted on 25 Aug 2025
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[–] Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 4 points 4 days ago (1 children)

With how industry has changed chickens.. I am always surprised they haven't managed to modify sheep so that the adults are as desired as the young.

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 2 points 4 days ago (1 children)

Why should they? Adults are more expensive to raise per kg of meat.

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 1 points 3 days ago (1 children)

I assumed the adults were a lot bigger.

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Not a lot. Growth slows down fast when an animal gets older.

So they are slaughtered at between 6 and 12 months, because that's the time where the growth slows down too much.

No point in having a 30% heavier animal if it takes 2x as long to get to that point.

[–] Modern_medicine_isnt@lemmy.world 1 points 2 days ago (1 children)

Totally, I didn't realize they grew so fast. And in my head a lamb is like a baby. Guess not really.

[–] squaresinger@lemmy.world 2 points 2 days ago

Yeah, it's like with the human term "child". A child is anything from birth until age 12 or so. There's quite a bit of a difference in that age range.

For sheep, a lamb is anything up to roughly a year.

In fact, sheep enter puberty at ~3-4 months, so a lamb will usually be slaughtered during puberty.