SHEEP BREEDS

Meat-Types

-Fast growing farm flocks

-Eat less= more muscular

-better reproduction & milk production

-short, coarse wool (not used in wool industry)

Range

Less input, larger land, big flocks left alone

Flock

Small herds, less land, more input & care (attend to animal everyday)

Suffolk 

-Most important with the Hampshire

were historically better but Hampshire has surpassed them in recent years

slick, black heads & legs

biggest & heaviest

Prone to Scrapie & spire lamb

(scrapy: degenerative nerve diseases & spider lamb: skeletal deformations)

Hampshire

Similar to Suffolk

More face is covered along with hocks (contains wool cap)

noted for bone mass

(wool can cover entire leg and goes towards nose too)

Dorset

Similar to Suffolk

All white & open faced

more efficient reproductively (milk better)
Horned or Polled

Pink pigmentation

Southdown

One of the first established breeds

most breeds can trace back to it

wool is found on their face

NOT OPENED FACED

Oxford

Hampshire genes

Shropshire

Little & irrelevant

Cheviot

Erect ears & bald face

Montedale

Cheviot x Columbia

Ears & face resembles those of a cheviot

Texel

Origin: Holland (1980s-1990s)

Known in Europe as a dominant meat breed

noted for heavy muscle & carcass

quite small ( up to average huma’s knee

looks like a pig/pitbull

Reproduction

Good for reproduction & having numerous sheep’s & good mothers)

Finnsheep

High fertility, milk well, good maternal instincts

high lamb survivability

produce 4-5 lambs

very tough

small, no muscle 

tails are NOT docked

PolyPay

White sheep breed

decent wool

Rambouillet X Dorset X Finnsheep X Targhee

Decent Carcass value

good muscle

good mothers & instincts

can breed out of season

produce 2-3 lambs

Booroola Merino

Bred specifically for one gene (mutate produce 4-6 lambs)

known for high repo rate

inbreeding has cause problems

greasy fleeces

undesirable wrinkles

(Babooshka)

Romanov

Dark sheep due to dark pelts

fleece has no value

lambs born black

high lamb numbers

good maternal breed

high lamb #’s

good instincts & very tough

Hair Sheep

Origin: Tropical/ humid /hot environment exp: Islands

Remarkable survival skills (adaptable & tough)

Genetic: Parasite Resistance

bodies contain genetic mechanism that kills the parasite

no wool, lack muscles & slow growth

high repo prolificacy

breed out of season

Dorper

Sheeding sheep

imported from South Africa (1990’s)

Dorset x Blackhead Persian

subcategory of fat-tails

fit for desert survival

recent strain of whiteheads

Meaty, tough ,stocky & adaptable

thrive in multitude of environments  

St.Croix

Origin: Virgin Islands

White beard

noted for adaptability

Royal White (Dorpcroix)

Origin: America

St. Croix x Dorper

more muscular compare to st.croix

good repo

Barbados Blackbelly

POLLED

one of first hair sheep to be imported to America

Originally polled but humans breed horns onto them using Mouflon & Rambouillet

created another breed Barbados (market: Hunting)

known: toughness & durability

Katahdin

Origin: U.S
St.Croix x Wiltshire Horn (British shedding sheep) x Suffolk

breeders took strain Suffolk who actively shed

genetics created all white, polled & more muscular hair sheep

colors: tan yellow, brown or speckled 

Pelibuey

Origin: Central/South America

Red body, white face

Texas Dahl

Genetically traces back to Barbados

has rambouillet genetics

light in colors & large horns (horns long like UT Cattle)

marketed for hunting

Dairy Sheep

Majority in the Great Lakes States (Minnesota, wisconsin’s, michigan etc)

industry dictated by their reproduction & milk production rates

East Friesian x Finnsheep (or Dorsets)

Equipment/Machines can be used interchangeably between diary sheep & goats bc of their similarity

Six Sheep categories

Fine-wool

long-wool

medium-wool

meat

reproduction

shedding/hair

What are the 4 main branches in the sheep industry?

wool, leather, dairy, meat

Sheep is considered a minor species in the U.S

Texas is the larget sheep producer in the U.S

U.S Has the largest sheep size due to high demand

Ram

Sexually intact/ mature male

Ewe

Mature Female

Lamb

off-spring or reffering to the meat (less than a yr old)

Wether

Castrated male

Flock 

group of sheep

Dock

docking the tail or removing it

mutton

meat obtained from older sheep (year older)

Lanolin

oily substance from wool used in cosmetics/ oinments

Wool

Fibers produced by sheep

Fleece

wool produced from 1 sheep

Terminal Cross

lambs used for meat production

Rotational Cross

Females kept, males are solde

Fine-wool

3 breeds

produce 8-10lbs of wool a year

produce 4-6 inches of wool a year

durable, tough & all white

found more in west in the range flocks

not muscley, smaller

Rambouillet

Derived from Marino

Origin:France

most important to U.S

open-faced

horned or poled

wool goes up to jaw

both genders have horns

noes, eyes, have no fur

Delaine Merino

Origin: Spain

Finest wool

most important sheep world-wide

horned or polled

more skin

wool use to shed, but humans genetically alter them to stop shedding

Debouillet

Origin: Mexico

Rambouillet x Merino 

Long-wool

English Origin

bigger than fine wools

produce 2-25lbs of wool a year

produce 12 inches of wool a year

coarse & heavy wool

Lincoln

Biggest of the long whools

longest fleece

dark pigmentation (noes & ears)

hair-like wool (drapes)

used as primary mixers (breeding/genetics)

used to mix with other breeds to provide the ideal sheep

Cotswold

smaller compared to other long-wools

not good sheep in general

has good hand-spun wool (small market, niche)

colorful genetics

gray, tan, black, brown

Leicester

Important in England

Bald

looks like bull terrier(molester)

Romney

Used in crossbreeding

known for resistance to foot rot

dark pigmentations

small carcus

Medium-wool

fine x long

created due to there being no middle ground between the wool breeds

bigger than fine-wools

Columbia

Origin: Wyoming

Pink pigmentation

polled

Corriedale

Lincoln x merino

dark pigmentation

(think Corriedale from love island for skin)

Targhee

created as USDA experiment

Origin: Idaho

most important

tend to produce the most wool out of all medium wool

polled

pink pigmentation

Carcass

When you take everything of the sheep you will just see the ribs, elbow