Sheep are very gentle animals that can be easily frightened. They flock together for protection because they cannot protect themselves well. Sheep have many natural predators, animals that hunt and kill other animals for food. They include coyotes, wolves, and domestic dogs. Sometimes larger animals, like mules or llamas, are kept in pastures with sheep to scare off possible predators.
The people who raise and care for sheep are called shepherds. Sometimes, shepherds have dogs to take care of the sheep. The dogs learn to round up the sheep, and when one wanders from the flock, the dog brings it back. There are many different breeds of sheep. Some are raised for meat and others primarily for wool. Sheep are valuable because they often graze land that other livestock cannot. Sheep eat grass and hay. Grasses and other plants that are eaten by animals are called forage.
In order to keep accurate records and to prevent sheep from straying, ancient shepherds performed frequent head counts of their flocks. In some parts of the world, farms were granted access to common grazing land—land that everyone could use. To prevent overgrazing, it was necessary for each farm to keep accurate, updated head counts. A count was the first task performed in the morning and the last performed at night. A count was made after moving the sheep from one pasture to another and after any operation involving the sheep, such as shearing, foot-trimming, etc. Before the Industrial Revolution, shepherds in England, Scotland, and Wales used their own numbering system for counting their sheep, with counting words to 20, but no higher. For every 20 sheep, the shepherd would place a mark on the ground, move his hands to another mark on the crook, or drop a pebble in his pocket. Twenty sheep was a score (5 score sheep = 100).
Just as a shepherd counts sheep, it is also necessary to count people. The decennial census is a count of every person living in the United States that occurs every 10 years. The purpose of the census is to get an overall look at communities across the United States, in order to better serve them. The census is used to help determine funding for schools and roads, congressional representation, and more.
Filling out the census is the law, not just our civic duty. The Constitution mandates that the country counts its population once every 10 years. The 2020 Census will mark the 24th time that the United States has counted its population since 1790. Everyone residing in the U.S. gets counted in the census—children, seniors, minorities, immigrants (legal and illegal), tribal communities, homeless, homeowners, renters, students, workers—everyone. It is important that every person be counted to make sure the government can provide money to each community for things like roads and parks. Census Day is April 1, 2020.
In addition to the census, the National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) is responsible for conducting the Census of Agriculture. The Census of Agriculture counts the agricultural production in the United States. From 1840 to 1920, the Census of Agriculture was taken every 10 years, just like the census of the U.S. population. Since 1925, the Census of Agriculture has been taken every five years, in the years ending in 2 and 7. In addition, NASS field offices in every state produce a wide variety of reports throughout the year, along with an annual report. These reports are used by producers, researchers, the news media, people involved in financial markets, and many others. These reports are compiled only for the top agricultural commodities from a sampling of state producers contacted at random. In contrast, the Census of Agriculture reports on every agricultural commodity produced in the state based on surveys collected from every producer.
