Columbia

The foundation flock moved to the US Sheep Experiment Station near Dubois, Idaho in 1918, and the refinement continued there. The Columbia is the original of the American station-bred breeds, and its Lincoln-on-Rambouillet recipe was copied for others.

They are large, white-faced and polled, among the biggest of the range breeds: ewes run 175 to 300 lb and rams 275 to 400.

The fleece is the paycheck: 10 to 16 lb a year from a ewe, medium wool at 24 to 31 microns with a 3.5 to 5 inch staple and a 45 to 55 percent yield.

The Columbia Sheep Breeders Association describes what the government program produced as larger ewes with superior mothering instincts, raising bigger lambs and more wool.

They were developed for range conditions. Both the association and Oklahoma State University record that they have since proved adaptable to the lush pasture and farm flock management of the Midwest, East, North and South.

Range production, which is what they were designed for. Ewes raise good lambs on range conditions and flock well, which matters when sheep are handled in thousands rather than dozens. The breed did what it was built for and is still a mainstay of range production in the intermountain west, and Columbia rams are used over commercial flocks for size and growth.

Open country and scale. The trade is that they were designed for exactly that: a large, heavy-fleeced sheep bred for range does not particularly suit a small farm, and in a wet climate that fleece is a management problem rather than an asset.

Match the system before the sheep: a Columbia earns its feed on range or big pasture, selling wool and lambs both. On five acres in a humid state, the same animal is a chore.

Registration runs through the Columbia Sheep Breeders Association of America. Ask for fleece weights and micron alongside the pedigree, because half this breed's income is the clip.

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