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4? BULLETIN 1360, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 
SUBDIVISIONS OF RAM CLASS 
At central markets, rams constitute a numerically unimportant 
class. Practically all of them that reach market are sent to 
slaughter, hence only one subclass is listed. Slaughter rams are 
usually segrevated into two age selections—yearlings ‘and 2 years old 
and over. As weight is of little significance, no “weight selections 
are shown. The number of erades of slaughter rams is limited to 
three—good, medium, and common. 
LAMBS 
A lamb is a young animal of the ovine species which has not yet 
acquired its first pair of permanent teeth. When the animal ap- 
proaches the yearling stage, it is sometimes necessary to inspect the 
mouth to detérmine whether it is still a lamb. If it has not yet ac- 
quired its first permanent teeth it is considered a lamb. 
Lambs constitute by far the most important market class of ovine 
animals, comprising from 85 to 93 per cent of receipts at most mar- 
kets. Here again, however, the principle of basing class on sex con- 
dition is not consistently maintained in that lambs are considered a 
class without respect to sex condition. 
Lambs really constitute an age selection rather than a class. As 
has already been pointed out, in immature animals sex condition has 
not had time to exert an important influence on conformation, finish, 
and quality; hence ewe, wether, and ram lambs are considered in 
a single group. Other ‘things being equal, ewe and wether lambs 
usually show higher degrees of these three fundamental characteris- 
tics than ram lambs and for this reason there is a tendency on the 
part of slaughterers to discriminate against ram lambs. This ten- 
dency becomes more marked as the lamb increases in age. Feeder- 
lamb buyers discriminate against ram lambs regardless of the age of 
the animal. 
