American Blackbelly

The American Blackbelly is a modern American hybrid breed of sheep. It is a hair sheep, growing a hair coat rather than a wool fleece.
It was developed in Texas by crossing sheep of the Barbados Black Belly and Rambouillet breeds with Corsican mouflon. This produced a horned animal with a heavier carcase and increased muscle mass compared to the original black-bellied breed. It is closely similar to the Barbado, another Texas hybrid with similar origins.

Characteristics

The American Blackbelly has the coloration of the Barbados breed – a brown hair coat ranging from light fawn to deep mahogany, with black underbelly and black insides of the ears and legs. Rams are horned, sometimes heavily so; ewes are usually polled, but may also be scurred or horned. It is a small sheep, with heights and weights closely similar to those of the Barbados BlackBelly: ewes weigh some and stand at the shoulder; rams weigh from with a height of some.

Use

The sheep are usually reared for trophy hunting, but can also be raised for meat or kept for conservation grazing.