[custom_adv] Sheep production was and must be an important branch of Romanian agriculture. The 32.7 percent grazing area, mostly marginal (4.8 million ha. - 2.7 million ha in mountain and alpine areas), gives a support capacity for some 12-16 million sheep. [custom_adv] Sheep were in the past, as well as in the twentieth century and must be in the future an important branch of Romanian agriculture. From Romanian agricultural areas, 32.7 percent are grassland area, two-thirds of which are of poor and very poor quality in mountain and alpine zones. [custom_adv] Romanian sheep production was slow to change in the twentieth century from old and traditional forms of husbandry to new and more intensive systems. [custom_adv] The environmental restrictions and the traditions checked the process and the normal evolution of social and economic life pushed the change, but not with great success, sometimes even with a danger to damage it. [custom_adv] Even the totalitarian regime from 1950-1989 did not succeed to make great changes. Before describing the systems, which include a set of owners, management methods, inputs and outputs acting for a particular target, it is important to know the production objectives and the sheep owners. [custom_adv] Sheep are kept in Romania for their dairy products, for the slaughtered young lambs (4-6 weeks, 10-12 kg), for wool production and sometimes fore manure.
