Sheep and goat farming is a profitable and sustainable enterprise to different categories of rural households. The study was conducted in Karnataka state of India. The results revealed that majority of the sheep and goat farmers belonged to age group of above 40 years and were illiterate (50-52%) and maximum number of farmers were having income of less than Rs.1 lakh per annum, who belonged to backward class, scheduled caste and scheduled tribe. The results also revealed that the annual net returns per animal of goat farm was relatively higher (Rs.1980) compared to sheep (Rs.1507) farming. Among sheep herd size, the net returns was more in large (Rs.1772) herd size as compared to medium (Rs.1431) and small (Rs.1008) herd size. Similarly, net returns was higher (Rs.2138) in large flock size compared to medium (Rs.1962) and small (Rs.1513). The mean technical efficiency of goat farming (92%) was relatively higher compared to sheep farming (89%). Non availability of grazing land with high cost of feed, especially during summer, incidence of PPR, ET and FMD diseases were the major constraints in sheep and goat rearing as perceived by the farmer. Keywords: Sheep herd, Goat flock, net returns, Technical efficiency Acknowledgement : Authors sincerely thank Dr. Suresh S Patil, Dean(Agriculture), University of Agricultural Sciences, Raichur, for his guidance and valuable suggestions during the course of this study; and to Mr. Ravi, S. C, PhD scholar in Agricultural Economics, UAS, Bengaluru(India) for their critical comments on the earlier draft, which helped us to bring this paper in its present shape.