I'm on an agricultural roll. I know we don't have an Agricultural Engineering section, so I'm hoping this is OK in General Discussion. The question is, I think, aimed mainly at our friends in the Mideast.
In the Christian New Testament, book of Matthew, 25th Chapter, 32nd verse, there is the line, "...he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats."
It seems fairly obvious that this dividing must have been a common practice in transhumant herding. My problem is that we don't really have any mixed flock herding in the US, except for a few small holdings, and so there is no local knowledge of why this division occured.
My suspicion is that this might have been for purposes of milking, though I'm not too sure. When I was a kid, we used one bucket for milking the Guernseys and another for the Jerseys, but nobody ever separated the animals.
So, do any of you who live in mixed flock areas know the reason for this division?
And, please, if you have some theological interpretation of this, send it to me by private message. I really want a scientific answer without getting the thread shut down.
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