How Long Do Sheep Live? Sheep Lifespan by Breed and Farm Type

Natural lifespan of sheep

The sheep is a fairly long-lived farm animal for its size. A healthy ewe or wether kept on good grazing, with shelter and care, commonly lives into its early teens. Animal welfare sanctuaries and smallholders who keep sheep as companions often see animals reach 14 to 16, and a few pass 20.

The AnAge database, a scientific record of animal longevity, lists a maximum of about 22.8 years for the domestic sheep. Claims of sheep living into their late twenties appear from time to time, but they are rarely backed by firm birth records, so they should be treated with caution.

Why most farm sheep live shorter lives

Most sheep are kept for meat, wool or milk, and farming economics decide when they leave the flock. Lambs for the meat trade are often sold at four to six months old, and almost all are slaughtered before their first birthday. Meat from these young animals is sold as lamb; meat from older sheep is called mutton.

Breeding ewes are usually kept for several lambing seasons. They are typically replaced when their production falls, when they have trouble lambing, or when their teeth wear down so they can no longer graze well. In upland Britain, ewes are often “drafted” from the harsh hills after about four lambings and sold to lowland farms, where easier conditions let them breed for a few more years.

Wool sheep can be kept longer than meat sheep, because a wether can go on producing a fleece every year. Still, few commercial farms keep sheep past the age of about eight.

How teeth reveal a sheep’s age

Teeth are the key to both a sheep’s age and its lifespan. Adult sheep have eight lower front teeth and no upper front teeth; instead, they bite against a hard pad in the upper jaw. A lamb starts with small milk teeth, which are replaced in pairs by broad permanent teeth on a fairly regular schedule.

After about four years, age can only be estimated from wear. As teeth grind down, spread apart and finally loosen or fall out, the sheep becomes “broken-mouthed”. On short hill grass, a broken-mouthed sheep struggles to eat enough, and this, more than any disease, limits how long many sheep live. On softer lowland pasture the same animal may thrive for years.

Does breed affect lifespan?

There is no reliable lifespan ranking of sheep breeds, but some general patterns hold. Small, hardy primitive breeds such as the Soay and Shetland are often long-lived when given decent conditions, and tough hill breeds are built to cope with poor grazing. Very large, fast-growing meat breeds are bred to reach market weight quickly rather than for long life.

Sex makes a difference too. Rams have the same biological potential as ewes, but fighting during the autumn rut and the weight they lose while chasing ewes take a toll, and in wild and feral populations rams usually die younger than ewes. On farms, only a small number of males are kept as breeding rams at all.

Living conditions matter as much as breed. The wild-living Soay sheep on the island of Hirta in the St Kilda archipelago, studied by scientists since the 1950s, show how harsh life can be. Their numbers rise and crash every few years, and in a bad winter many lambs and old animals die from hunger and cold.

Do sheep live as long as goats and cows?

Sheep have a lifespan broadly similar to their close relative the goat, which commonly lives about 12–18 years when well kept. Cattle, which are much larger, have a natural lifespan of roughly 15–20 years, as described in How long do cows live?. In all three species, farm animals rarely reach their natural limit.

Famous long-lived sheep

Some individual sheep have become famous for their age or their fleece. Shrek, a Merino wether from New Zealand, made headlines in 2004 after hiding in caves for six years to avoid shearing; he lived to about 16. His story, and why sheep need shearing at all, is told in Why do sheep need shearing?.