The Top 12 Sheep Breeds to Raise for Meat

When you think about raising sheep, what’s the first thing you think of? If you answered “wool,” you aren’t alone. That is indeed their most iconic commodity, but it isn’t the only thing that they produce.

Sheep are a true utility livestock breed, capable of producing wool, of course, but also plenty of milk and meat. The latter is enjoyed around the world in the form of mutton and lamb, and like any other livestock species the breed makes a big difference when it comes to the quality of the finished product.

If you’re interested in raising sheep for meat, or just want to know your way around a conversation on the subject, keep reading and I’ll tell you about 12 sheep meat breeds that you need to know about.

Katahdin

The American Katahdin sheep is known for its lack of wool, growing hair instead, and also its good health, adaptability, and resistance to hot weather. Turns out that when you don’t have a wool coat, you can deal with heat a lot easier!

Although significantly smaller than some of the mammoth breeds on our list, an adult Katahdin will average about 250 pounds and is known for producing quality, fine-grained, lean, and clean tasting mutton and lamb.

Lambs grow comparatively slowly for their size, but are still ready to head to slaughter in about 3 months’ time.

Barbados Blackbelly

The Barbados Blackbelly is a unique small breed that hails from the Caribbean as the name suggests. With rams rarely weighing more than 130 pounds, and taking a long time to mature, they might not seem like a good choice for meat at first glance.

They don’t even have wool, and instead grow a naturally short coat that makes them a great choice for hot weather.

So what gives? Simply enough, the Barbados Blackbelly is a prolific and highly reliable breeder, with ewes usually producing two or even three lambs in a single pregnancy. They will readily breed all year round, making it easy to maintain or expand the size of your flock.

These sheep are remarkably healthy and famous for their parasite resistance, meaning you’ll be wasting less time with checkups and healthcare than you would with other breeds. Plus, in the end, their meat is known to be flavorful, savory, and tender. Worth the wait, in other words!

Dorper

Dorpers are a famous breed that’s been kept increasingly for meat production in recent years. Arguably a true large breed, Rams can weigh up to 300 pounds though ewes aren’t much lighter on average usually tipping the scale at around 250 pounds and occasionally less. Like the Barbados Blackbelly, this is another year-round breeder.

Dorpers are fairly adaptable, tough, and healthy, and are notable for their unique wool which sheds naturally. You don’t even have to shear them if you don’t want to.

This unique wool means that they do not create much lanolin which can otherwise give their meat an unpleasant taste, meaning they are often known for their mild, clean flavor.

Icelandic

Icelandic sheep are on the smaller side of the medium category, but still produce a sufficient quantity of meat that is known for being both quite lean and intensely flavorful when they are taken from their native range.

Although sometimes described as tasting gamey, connoisseurs report that it has a sublime, earthy flavor that makes it special compared to most other breeds.

The Icelandic sheep tends to be shy in a little standoffish, but they’re known to be healthy, very reliable breeders and ready to breed earlier than most common domestics, meaning it is easy to expand your flock and replace animals that have been harvested.

Note, though, that slow-growing lambs need on average about 4 ½ months to mature, maybe a bit longer.

Dorset

A true utility breed, this English all-star has been around for centuries, since at least the end of the 18th century, and likely much earlier than that.

Lean, athletic, and capable of producing a sizable and decent quality fleece along with plenty of milk in addition to their meat, if you want to go with just one breed to cover all of your bases the Dorset won’t steer you wrong.

Their meat is known to be mild tasting and somewhat fatty, but quite tender. Just as importantly, these sheep are notably easy to take care of and even rams tend to be pretty docile – most of the time!

Squarely in the medium size category, rams can approach 300 pounds but most ewes hover between 150 and 200 pounds.

Cheviot

Another medium-small breed, and yet another one that hails from England, not France as the name might suggest, the Cheviot is known for being short, stocky, and densely muscled, and excellent producers of flavorful and moderately fatty mutton and lamb.

Notably, the Cheviot is one of the very best dual-use cold weather breeds, and they’re kept for their milk as often as their meat. If you live in a cold and hilly or mountainous region, the Cheviot is one of the very best you could own.

Suffolk

The Suffolk sheep has the distinction of being the single most popular and arguably most important to meet and breed in the world.

One of the many English breeds that will appear on our list, this large body sheep can weigh in excess of 550 pounds, and produces a huge quantity of lean, succulent, and flavorful mutton.

Lamb is also quite popular, and because the Suffolk grows quickly despite its huge size and lambs are major money makers, ready to head to market at just 3 months of age.

Perhaps the only downside to these excellent, hardy sheep is that they require quite a lot of food to sustain this rapid and monumental growth, so they’re known to have a good feed conversion ratio. Nonetheless, there’s no getting around that math!

Hampshire

Yet another English breed on our tour, the Hampshire resulted from dedicated crossbreeding and the early 19th century between Southdown and Leicester sheep.

The result was remarkable, producing an animal that would grow large, grow quickly, and produce surprisingly good meat.

New Hampshire is a medium to large breed, with rams often approaching 300 pounds. Nonetheless, adults produce lots of tender, succulent, and fine-grained meat with a boring regularity, and the Hampshire is routinely used for crossbreeding with other domestics to further improve the meat in other lines.

They’re pretty adaptable and tend to be healthy, but they don’t do well in dry areas, so keep that in mind.

Texel

Texels might be medium-sized, but they are incredibly stout, heavy animals for their size with notably pronounced musculature. You can tell they are destined for meat production just by looking at them!

Aside from their large carcass yield, they also mature quickly and breed early, and have a breeding season that is nearly 6 months long.

This is another breed that is remarkably good in cold weather, though they tend to suffer when it’s very hot. Also, they grow thick wool and quickly, so regular shearing is a must.

Tunis

Another truly ancient breed, and on the smaller side of the medium category, the Tunis is rightly famous for the superb, almost indescribable flavor of its meat. They command a premium in many areas for this alone, and lambs are said to be especially delicious.

Mothers will give birth reliably with few complications, and are doting and attentive to their babies. However, they are not year-round breeders, and getting them to breed out of season can be challenging.

Southdown

We aren’t finished with the English breeds just yet. The Southdown is a legacy breed that was created for the dual purposes of meat and wool production, and left its native England for United States shores in the early 19th century.

These petite sheep are densely muscular and athletic, with barrel-shaped bodies and round heads. Their meat is known for its mild, savory flavor and excellent marbling, remarkable even among other excellent meat breeds on our list.

For wool or for meat, the Southdown is loved by shepherds because of its adaptability, good health, and suitability for a wide variety of climates, including arid and damp ones. As long as you keep them out of truly extreme heat and cold, they tend to do just fine.

The Southdown is also a remarkably good grazer, even on marginal pasturage. This is another versatile sheep that is easy to care for and highly productive; that’s a winner in my book!

Charollais

Large, French powerhouses, Charollais are notable for their sturdy build, heavy muscling, and excellent carcass yield of lean meat.

They are important commercial producers in their native France, and regionally in other parts of the world. They also have a notable use as terminal sires to boost the physiques of the resulting lambs, which will grow bigger and quicker thanks to their genetics.

Though one of the most popular meat breeds in our day, they have one major drawback that you must account for: they will not do well on a substandard pasture.

They need lots of high-quality forage and other foods to thrive, so if your land isn’t up to the challenge and you aren’t willing to supplement appropriately, you probably want to try another sheep.