California Red

The California Red was created in 1970 by Dr Glenn Spurlock, who crossed Tunis with Barbados Blackbelly aiming for a sheep that would breed year round and produce meat without wool to shear.

What resulted is unusual to look at. Lambs are born a solid cinnamon red and the colour fades as they mature to a cream or oatmeal fleece shot through with red fibres, with red remaining on the head and legs. Rams are polled.

They breed out of season, ewes are good mothers, and they tolerate heat.

The fleece is soft and the red fibres are sought by handspinners for the colour, though it does need shearing despite the hair-sheep parentage.

The trade is rarity. Numbers are small and concentrated in the western states, so both stock and buyers are limited, and the breed is kept more by smallholders and fibre people than by commercial producers.