Almost all sheep are classified as best suited to provide a particular creation: skin, meat, milk, skins, or a combination in a dual-purpose breed. A breeding strategy in support of a herd of sheep can be compared to traveling to a destination. When planning a trip, a traveler will instinctively know the roads to travel on or consult a road plan to determine the most excellent route.

A breeding arrangement in support of the maintenance of a herd of sheep is unique in a travel arrangement. It is a setup to transform the genetics of a herd from its current level of performance and productivity to stretch to a defined target. Without ration preparation, animals join or leave the group in support of a variety of reasons, selected from among which could reduce the group’s ability to be productive and produce offspring to meet market needs. This may frustrate efforts to increase sheep productivity to meet market animal protein needs.

A particular case is that a breeder buys 30 maternal type ewes and a terminal ram. The ewes are bred and deliver uniform and good looking market lambs. The owner is satisfied with the races; the lambs exhibit a number of members of hybrid vigor in yield and are priced above average in the market. The owner decides to increase the size and keeps the best ewe ewes to increase the size to 50 ewes. When it comes time to raise these sheep, there are currently 20 sheep interrelated with the current ram; therefore, fresh mutton is desired.

When exporting an additional terminal ram, the group supplier selects a third variety. This adds complexity to the practice, requiring separate breeding pastures and the resulting lambs are a diverse composition.

The year of childbirth then, 50 new deliveries attend. While mature ewes do well, ewe lambs do not do as well as predicted. However, this is acceptable as they are ewe lambs and the lambs that are born are well behaved. Sheep business is profitable and a decision is made to keep more than 30 ewe lambs.