 Ranged maggots, woolly locusts. You've probably heard such negative descriptions applied to sheep. Historically, sheep have been given a bad rap in Wyoming and elsewhere. Sheep's bad reputation is based on faulty stereotypes and is mostly unwarranted. It can largely be traced to poor management by humans and to the anatomy and behavior of sheep. Cattle, with their large mouths and lips, primarily eat grass and they can't graze as close to the soil surface as sheep can. Sheep have mobile lips and tongues, and the upper lip is split, allowing them to nibble or strip the leaves off of shrubs and broadleaf plants. Sheep eat proportionally less grass than cattle do, however, if forced to, sheep are capable of grazing grasses to the soil surface. It is a myth that sheep are more likely to overgraze rangeland than cattle. Overgrazing usually occurs when there are simply too many animals for the available forage to support, or when they are left in an area for too long. Since they eat more shrubs and broadleafs, properly managed sheep may be better adapted and less likely to damage the range than cattle, especially in shrub-dominated rangelands. Moreover, research indicates that because of differences in diet preference, cattle and sheep grazing together can utilize about 20 percent more forage than either species grazing separately, and the balance among the various classes of plants remains healthier. Sheep can help control shrubs and flowers that would otherwise compete with the grasses that cattle eat. I'm Rachel Miller with the University of Wyoming Cooperative Extension Service, exploring the nature of Wyoming.