American Blackbelly

The American Blackbelly is a hair sheep developed in the United States by crossing Barbados Blackbelly ewes with Mouflon and Rambouillet rams, specifically to produce rams with large horns.

That purpose separates it from the Barbados Blackbelly, which is polled. American Blackbelly rams carry heavy curved horns and the breed is bred and sold substantially for hunting preserves as well as for meat.

They are tan with black underparts and facial markings, small, and they shed. They are also parasite resistant, heat tolerant, and breed out of season.

The trade is that they are a small, athletic, wild-tempered sheep. They finish light, they jump, and they are harder to handle than a domesticated meat breed. If you want a hair sheep for lamb production rather than for horns, a Katahdin or Dorper is the more straightforward answer.