Is A Lamb A Baby Sheep Secret Behind Lamb Meat For Kids

Lambs and sheep are sold in the market at different prices.Both their meat is available at shops, but the difference between lamb and sheep is based on their age. A lamb’s meat is sold as lamb whereas, a sheep’s meat is called mutton when sold.In the United States, both lamb and mutton are sold in large quantities. Lamb tends to be tender and smaller in size whereas mutton or sheep meat needs to be tenderized by cooking but is the better option when a bulk amount of meat is required.A young sheep is called a lamb. When a sheep is one year old, it is known as a young lamb, as it is smaller in size and only 10-12 months old. Its meat is tender when compared to an older sheep. There are high chances that you might have come across these animals when on a mountain trail or exploring some remote areas. Just like goats, sheep and lambs have the ability to survive under challenging conditions which might not be possible for many other cattle animals to live in. An interesting fact about these animals is, the life stage of a sheep is divided into three parts. When it is one year of age, it is known as a lamb, from 12 -24 months of its life, it is recognized as a hogget although this is more of a popular term in countries like the UK and Australia. Hogget meat is a lamb that is 12-24 months old. In the Us, only the terms lamb and sheep are used for the different life stages of a sheep. Beyond the two year mark, this animal is recognized as sheep and its meat is sold as mutton.If you enjoyed this article, why not also read about animals that eat grass and pack animals here on Kidadl?All You Need To Know About LambThe word ’lamb’ refers to the animal lamb which is the young one of a sheep and also signifies the meat that is obtained from a lamb. Around the world, lamb is generally the preferred choice. People opt for lamb meat rather than mutton when they look to eat whole cuts such as chops and roasts. However, it has also been noted that whether someone prefers lamb meat or mutton largely depends on what they have been eating since childhood.Traditionally, Christians all over the world look to eat cooked lamb on Easter. Even though this tradition has been around for ages, spring is not the best season for lamb. Easter is not actually the time of the year when lambs should be eaten. Easter is the time for lambs to be born. This allows the lamb to naturally graze on grass during the summer. At Easter, it is better to eat hogget, rather than lamb, that is already around one year of age during Easter. Other than this traditional occasion, there has been a rise in the demand for lamb in the market. Lamb is now often roasted during a family dinner in the winter season which has led to lambs being reared indoors in the absence of fresh green grass. Other than in local areas, all the lamb dishes you see on a menu are made of lambs which have gained fat living on a farm using special feed rather than by consuming natural grass.If you manage to source lamb meat that has come from a lamb that was naturally reared outdoors rather than in intensive farming, you will notice the difference in the flavor of its meat. New Zealand is one country that is known for the good quality production of sheep due to the country’s mountainous and cool environment. Sheep and lambs get vast amounts of land here with fresh green grass. This helps in the natural development of their meat and you can tell from the taste of their meat. Not a lot of livestock can survive in these conditions, but these conditions are ideal for the health of a sheep. New Zealand benefits from low production costs, lots of available space and thus exports high-quality lamb to various countries including the likes of the US and UK. There is another kind of lamb known as the Saltmarsh lamb which gets its name from the land that it grazes on. Lambs which are reared on salted marshlands and coats, grasslands are known as Saltmarsh lamb. They are extremely rare as their meat is sweet-tasting and of pretty high quality. Cooking this kind of lamb is a bit different from basic lamb meat to enjoy the texture and get the most flavor from the meat. If you cook lamb properly, you are able to tell the difference between a farm lamb and a naturally grown one.Is lamb meat from baby lambs?Most of us by now know the difference between lamb meat and sheep meat and that it is differentiated on the basis of the age of the animal. But something that you still might not know is, lamb meat can further be divided into a couple of categories depending upon the age of the lamb. Generally, the different types of meat type can be cooked in different ways as a younger lamb is always more tender and pink in color. As a lamb grows, the color becomes deeper and in sheep meat, you will find a deep red color.The meat of a young sheep or a lamb is further divided into two categories, baby lamb and spring lamb, once again on the basis of the age of the animal. The meat of lambs whose age is just 6-10 weeks is referred to as baby lamb whereas when the same animal grows to be around five to six months old, its meat is called spring lamb. Lamb meat that you often consume might not be from a baby lamb exactly, although the animal is still small, it is relatively older than what is called a baby lamb. Although lamb and mutton are eaten all over the world, lamb is comparatively consumed more in the western countries due to its mild taste whereas mutton is preferred in Middle East countries due to its strong flavor. Talking about flavor, the taste of the meat of a lamb or sheep largely depends upon what it is fed, as its feed will, later on, get converted into fat. When you later roast this fat, the flavor will be exquisite. This is seen in milk-fed lambs which have a delicate and unique flavor.Lamb vs. Sheep: Differences Between A Lamb And A SheepCommonly, we consider lambs and sheep to be different from each other because a lamb is younger than a sheep. However, there are various underlying factors on the basis of which lambs and sheep can be differentiated. Factors ranging from family friendly nature, diet, and healthcare needs cause other differences between lambs and sheep.An adult lamb, when it is around 10-12 months old has an average weight of 80-120 lb (36.3-54.4 kg) whereas an adult sheep has an average weight of 200-350 lb (90.7 -158.8 kg). Both lambs and sheep have a herbivorous diet but unlike sheep, lambs tend to drink milk. For the first few weeks from when they are born, lambs only drink their mother’s milk. Unlike other livestock animals, both sheep and lambs do not have a lot of health care requirements if they are raised in a clean and fresh environment. Lambs that are half a year old might require a checkup at times but sheep require minimal health care. Sheep, unlike lambs, are not very family-friendly, it is lambs that are known to be more comfortable with families as well as other pets. When it comes to clothes, leather from lambs is preferred over leather from sheep and in the case of wool, lambs have softer wool when compared to sheep.Why do people eat lamb and not sheep?There are a wide variety of people all over the world, and some prefer eating lamb while others opt for mutton or sheep meat. It has been noted that the British and people living in the United States prefer lamb roasts and lamb chops. People living in these regions eat lamb because it is tender and is regarded as one of the most eco-friendly meats in the world due to the way the animal is raised.People living in the Middle East and in the eastern parts of Asia prefer sheep meat or mutton as it has more flavors than lambs. Additionally, researchers have concluded that preference for lamb or mutton largely depends on what the person has been eating since its early days. Also, mutton is usually cooked only when more cooked meat is required when there are a lot of people. In other cases, lamb does the job.Eating Lamb Is HealthyLamb is one of those animals which is raised on green pastures of land with natural grass and its mother’s milk as it doesn’t respond well to confinement. The tender texture and the pink color of a lamb meat are largely due to the way it is raised.As lambs are not confined, they are raised naturally in the open and all they need is sunlight, water, nutrients from the soil and their mother’s milk during the initial days, making their diet completely healthy. A healthy diet leads to good quality meat making our lamb consumption healthy and disease-free. Lamb is even healthier than beef as its fat content is less than that of beef and at the same time it has more health-promoting omega 3 fatty acids.Here at Kidadl, we have carefully created lots of interesting family-friendly facts for everyone to enjoy! If you liked learning is a lamb a baby sheep then why not take a look at animals with big eyes, or what are baby geese called.

Lambs and sheep are sold in the market at different prices.