Columbia

The Columbia was the first sheep breed developed by the United States government. Work began in 1912 at Laramie, Wyoming, crossing Lincoln rams with Rambouillet ewes, with a specific goal: a larger sheep with a heavier fleece that could replace crossbred flocks on western range.

They are large, white-faced and polled, and they produce a heavy fleece of medium wool. 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.

The trade is that they were designed for open country. 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.