Translations:Benutzer:Arian/Klett-Mini-Test/577/en

Sheep and goats are extraordinarily frugal. Their food is grasses, herbs, leaves and shoots. The goats in particular are highly adaptable to the aromatic, cellulose-rich and salt-bearing food supply of extreme geographical zones — mountain regions and semi-deserts, for instance. Overgrazing of the latter leads rapidly to progressive desertification. Through the manifold gifts of both small ruminants — wool, meat, milk, hair, hide, skin and horn — they became the great cultural companions of the human being. They stood in closed herds under the care of the pastoral peoples, as the very foundation of their existence, and in many places became in village settlements the "poor man's cow." The close relationship of the sheep to its environment and to the human being led worldwide to a great diversity of breeds, and since the Middle Ages in Europe to the development of landraces, and in the modern era to line breeding for meat, wool and milk breeds. The breeding toward the white wool sheep (Merino) took place in Spain. Today, frequently through the crossing-in of landraces, it has found the widest distribution worldwide.