Florida Cracker

Florida Cracker sheep are among the oldest sheep in North America, descended from Spanish flocks landed in the Southeast in the 1500s. When the Spanish missions were abandoned the sheep were left to themselves, and several centuries of natural selection did the rest. They were once called Florida Scrub Sheep, from churra, the Spanish word for a scrub sheep.

What survived is an animal built for conditions that defeat most sheep: heat, humidity, high winds, drought and poor forage. They are usually polled, resistant to parasites and pests, low maintenance, and they lamb without help.

They were not a curiosity. Florida led the country in sheep production before the Civil War, and until the Second World War most wool used in the South came from Florida Crackers and their Gulf Coast cousins. They free-ranged the palmettos and pineywoods until open range ended in 1949, gathered twice a year for shearing and to mark lambs.

Larger, faster-growing breeds displaced them from the middle of the 20th century and the population fell hard.

Do not confuse the sheep with Florida Cracker cattle or Florida Cracker horses. Three separate breeds share the name.