Meanings
present singular third person share-herds · participle present share-herding · participle past share-herded · past share-herded · alternative share herd
- To care for the livestock that belong to someone else, in exchange for a percentage of the profits or offspring; to work as a shareherder.
She share-herds two sheep from her aunt's son.
2013, Christopher B. Barrett, Peter Little, Michael Carter, Understanding and Reducing Persistent Poverty in Africa, →ISBN1 more example
Another goal was to raise the general level of herd productivity to that of herder-owned and managed herds from the lower level of productivity in herds containing a significant number of share-herded animals.
1988, Jeremy Swift, Major Issues in Pastoral Development
alternative share herd
- uncountablemost often used attributivelyThe practice by which someone works as a shareherder; shareherding.
Little et al. (2006) reported that households who lost animals during drought remained vulnerable and poor six years after the drought in Ethiopia, and poor families had to borrow animals (often on a share-herd basis) to restock their herds after the 1998-2000 drought.
2011, A.J. Jordaan, Drought Risk Reduction in the Northern Cape, South Africa. PhD thesis, University of the free State, South Africa1 more example
At a time when the very poor were desperate to recover their few animal assets they also took on animals from wealthier households on a share-herd basis (that is, a contract where in exchange for herding the poor share in herd offspring usually on a 50/50 basis), permitting the best off households to avoid labour and feed costs while reaping gains in herd growth.
2013, Christopher B. Barrett, Peter Little, Michael Carter, Understanding and Reducing Persistent Poverty in Africa, →ISBN
Cite this entry
share-herd. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/share-herd
“share-herd.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/share-herd. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “share-herd,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/share-herd.
Source: share-herd on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.