American Blackbelly

The cross was made in Texas, combining the Barbados Blackbelly with Corsican mouflon and Rambouillet blood, and the result carries more muscle and a heavier carcass than the original island breed alongside the horns it was bred for.

That purpose separates it from the Barbados Blackbelly, which is polled. The Barbados Blackbelly Sheep Association International registers both breeds and keeps the distinction: horned animals are American Blackbelly, polled are Barbados Blackbelly.

They are small: ewes run about 75 to 95 lb and rams 110 to 140. The coat is hair, not wool, in light fawn to dark mahogany with the black underparts and facial markings that give the breed its name, and it sheds.

American Blackbelly rams carry heavy curved horns; ewes are usually polled, sometimes scurred or horned. They are also parasite resistant, heat tolerant, and breed out of season.

They are a small, athletic, wild-tempered sheep. They finish light, they jump, and they are harder to handle than a domesticated meat breed. The mouflon is close to the surface, and your fencing and handling system need to respect that.

The breed is bred and sold substantially for hunting preserves, where the rams' horns are the product, as well as for meat and for conservation grazing.

Little in the way of shearing or coddling: the hair coat sheds, the parasite resistance is real, and heat does not trouble them. What they do need is containment built for an animal that jumps.

Check the horns against the paper. BBSAI registration separates the horned American Blackbelly from the polled Barbados Blackbelly, and crossing the two muddies both books.

If you want a hair sheep for lamb production rather than for horns, a Katahdin or Dorper is the more straightforward answer. Buy this breed for what it was actually designed to be.

Recent sale prices on HoofnHorn, where there are any, are further down this page.