|Iran Table of Contents The value of livestock increased
annually after 1981, but the decreases in livestock in the early
revolutionary period were such that by 1985 the overall value of
livestock remained below the 1976 level. Severe shortages of
meat and eggs, coupled with high demand and the absence of price
controls, encouraged the raising of livestock and were expected
to improve livestock availability. Livestock-raising methods
were generally unsophisticated. Sheep and goats were kept by
nomadic tribesmen and by sedentary villagers who supported a few
animals as a sideline to farming. These animals had diets of
grass and shrubs that often left them diseased and malnourished;
in turn, the herders obtained little profit in the way of meat,
milk, hair, and hides. Source: U.S. Library of Congress