HAIR SHEEP HISTORY
By Donald Chávez Y Gilbert
The First Domesticated Hair Sheep
While there is a lack of precise certitude in the case of Churro Sheep history, where
“hair” sheep are concerned there appears to be utter confusion around the country.
One hour on the internet reading assorted hair sheep web site’ descriptions of the
history of hair sheep and you will find almost as many arbitrary variations,
descriptions, and histories as there are web sites. An effort to site proper authorities
on hair sheep here should narrow down the parameters and lend some credence
and consistency to the real history of hair sheep.
Between six and ten thousand years BC sheep, goats, and cattle were being
domesticated. Domesticated woolen sheep, “woolies,” are so ubiquitous that it is
probably safe to assume that most non-ranching folks are of the mindset that wool
have always been “woolies.” As a matter of clarification, I should begin this section
by stating that it is not natural for sheep to have a heavy fleece all year round.
The first sheep domesticated by our ancestors were wild hair sheep. Hair sheep to
varying degrees, depending on climate naturally grow warm insulating wool as well
as hair (like that of a goat) during the cold months of the year. As the weather
warms, the wool fleece sheds leaving only the hair behind. This is a practical
adaptation. Over the past eight thousand years, mankind has selectively bred sheep
more for its’ ability to produce wool and less for its hardiness. That is why the
Churra sheep imported from the Iberian Peninsula which still carries some of these
attributes of more primitive sheep like fecundity, hair plus wool, as well as hardiness
were so successful over other strains of sheep and were a perfect strain to maintain
by the first Hispanic ranchers living through many spells of hard times. The hardiest
people kept the hardiest livestock.
There are many species of these wild sheep ranging in habitats in what is referred to
as the Great Arc, (like the shape of ram horns), of the Wild Sheep, beginning with
Mouflon sheep in western Europe across the Bering Straits to the American
Bighorns in southwestern USA. James L. Clark has published a great book on
these ancient wild sheep called The Great Arc of the Wild Sheep, University of
Oklahoma press, 1994. The ancient sheep domesticated by man originated globally
north of the equator and have been disseminated by nomadic people all over the
world. One example mentioned above sites the French who borrowed sheep from
Spain when French King Louis XVI imported over three hundred Spanish Merinos for
his estate at Rambouilette, France in 1786 crossing them with his native French
sheep and naming them after the French community “Rambouilette.” And so went
the practice of borrowing and renaming animals until there are far too many
subspecies to mention.
Since the decline of the wool industry in the twentieth century, domesticated hair
sheep, also referred to as meat sheep have become more popular for a number of
reasons. They are great sheep for the beginner or hobbyist. As mentioned above,
hair sheep are more resistant to disease, parasites, and climate changes. They are
less expensive and easier to keep because they need no shearing, are hardy,
prolific, and more forgiving than woolies. Finally, their meat lacks that mutton taste
some people find distasteful.
The first reference to hair sheep appears in Spanish journals, references to their
discoveries in the Canary Islands. The best reference to the origins of hair sheep
comes from translated archives. This is a direct verbatim quote, (albeit a bit
awkward), from Spanish to English by A. Rodero, J.V. Delgado and E. Rodero - El
Ganado Andaluz Primitivo Y Sus Implicaciones En El Descubrimiento De America. “It
is clear, because of in the archipelago there did not exist cattle, horses, asses or
camels before the (Spanish) conquest and the pre-Hispanic canary sheep had
special characteristics (they present hair, not wool), not mentioned in America’s
farming at this time.”
Although these hair sheep are not described any further to give us a clue as to
whether they were related to modern St. Croix sheep, Blackbellys (AKA Barbados),
Wiltshire Horn or any other of the known older hair sheep species, these are the hair
sheep the Spanish shipped to the Americas. He continues…“The Spaniards found
the Canaries inhabited by a mythic people called the Guanches, coming from the
vicinal Africa as was shown by their racial characteristic (Mediterranean) and their
language (similar to the Berberlanguage), at though with the precedence of other
ethnic groups in a lesser degree (Nordics, Negroids and Cro-Magnon), all of them
with a difficultly explicable origin. The Guanches were principally farmers, and the
waitings there mentioned the presence of goats, pigs, sheep, and a high abundance
of dogs,(canines); the last probably gave the name to these Islands: Canarias, from
the Latin Canis. The characteristics of these livestock showed a clear African roots.
The location of the archipelago as a crossroad between continents and the demand
of products from the new colonies brought good commercial
profits to the Islands, after the Discovery of America.” “The Canary Islands were a
necessary stop on the way to America. In 1404 Castilla occupied it permanently. It
was the beginning of their colonization and europeatization.”
When Spanish livestock arrived on the other side of the Atlantic in the Americas they
referred to them as Criollo, a wide all encompassing term applied to all species
such as cattle and sheep, and horses, e.g., Cuban Criollo horse, Mexican corriente
cattle, and Navajo churro sheep. As time progressed some species took on the
names of their specially bred characteristics and others kept the Criollo name.
According to I.L. Mason’s World Dictionary of Livestock Breeds, Third Edition. C.A.B.
International, Criolo is also known as: “Creole, Chilludo, Pampa, Colombian, Lucero,
Tarhumara, Uruguayan, Venezuelan. The Criollo breed developed in the highlands of
Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela over hundreds
of years. The ancestors of the present day Criollo is believed to be the Spanish
Churro, which was brought to this area in the mid-1500. The present day breed has
a coarse fleece of carpet wool type. They are typically white, black or pied.”
There are a number of species of hair sheep around the world, both tropical and
temperate subspecies. As they specialize, registries are being established and
standards set as guideposts for differentiating one from another. For our purposes
here I will concentrate on breeds popular to the United States of America, with
particular emphasis on the Mouflon, Barbados Blackbelly, and Rambouillet, (French
for Spanish Merino), which are the foundation stock of the vast majority of our horned
American Hair Sheep breeds; Corsican, Black Hawaiian, Painted Desert, New
Mexican Dall, and, Texas Dall to name a few trophy hunt sheep. The Katahdin,
Dorper, and St. Croix, which are also hair sheep but, are polled, (hornless), are
considered exclusively meat sheep. The New Mexican Dall is uniquely bred to
appeal to both meat and trophy hunt customers with large muscular bodies sporting
massive horns.
St. Croix sheep are like the Barbados an old breed brought to the Americas by the
Spanish and Portuguese merchants and explorers. Katahdin sheep date back to the
late 1950's with the importation of St. Croix sheep from the Caribbean by Michael
Piel, to Maine, U.S.A. His goal was to combine the shedding coat, prolificacy and the
hardiness of the Virgin Island sheep, with the meat, conformation and rate of growth
of the woolen breeds. He experimented with crosses between the hair sheep and
various British breeds, especially the Suffolk. Later, he collected a flock of Wiltshire
Horned Sheep in the mid 1970's, from England incorporated them into the flock in
order to add size, and improve carcass quality even further. He named his sheep
"Katahdin" after Mount Katahdin in Maine
Barbados Blackbelly Sheep
According to R.I. Rastogi, H.E. Williams, and F.C. Youssef in their Origin and History
of the Barbados Blackbelly, “in tropical America there are two quite different types of
sheep. In the highlands there is a woolen sheep, called Criollo, which originated
from the coarse-woolen Churro imported from Spain during the period 1548 to 1812.
It is a small to medium-sized animal producing a small quantity of coarse wool
which is important for the cottage wool industry. The males have horns. Colour is
often white but coloured and pied animals are common.
This is the principal breed in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela,
Guyana, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. There are also small populations in Haiti and the
Dominican Republic.
The second type of sheep is a wool-less or hair sheep whose colour is commonly
tan (red-brown), white, or patterns involving tan. Males lack horns but are
characterized by a shoulder and throat ruff of long hair. This hair sheep is found in
many Caribbean islands and in mainland countries along the north coast of South
America. Populations will be described from Barbados, Virgin Islands, Bahamas,
Cuba, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Colombia and Brazil. The hair sheep is of
African origin but, in countries where wooled Criollo sheep do not occur (e.g. Cuba),
it may be termed “Criollo” which tends to be confusing.”
Rodero’s citation of Spanish discovery of hair sheep as being of African origin and
“the location of the archipelago as a crossroad between continents and the demand
of products from the new colonies brought good commercial profits to the Islands,
after the Discovery of America,” makes it reasonably clear that these sheep were
exported and marketed in the Americas by Spanish and Portuguese merchants,
beginning with the Carrabean Islands chain between Antigua to Barbados, and St.
Croix.
R. Lydekker in The Sheep and its Cousins, London: George Allen Press wrote about
the Guinea long-legged sheep:
“Early in the seventeenth century these sheep were carried by the Portuguese to the
northern districts of Brazil, while about the same time, or perhaps still earlier, they
were introduced by the Spaniards into the West Indies and Guiana….”
Notwithstanding the obvious connection with the Spanish, R.K. Rastogi, H.E.
Williams and F.C. Youssef do not credit the Spanish or the Portuguese with the
introduction of hair sheep to the Island of Barbados. They do state, however, that, “it
is generally agreed that these hair sheep were introduced into Barbados from West
Africa. They have existed in Barbados for well over three hundred years.” Another
well known African hair sheep introduced in the 1500’s by Iberian explorers is the St.
Croix sheep. Instead of creditinig the Spanish or Portuguese predecessors they cite
Ligon who guesses that the Blackbelly hair sheep “must have been introduced
between 1624 and 1657.” That is the time when British explorer Sir William
Curteens during a storm accidently blew onto on the Isle of Barbados after the
Portuguese and Spanish had come and gone.
R.K. Rastogi, H.E. Williams and F.C. Youssef go on to quote Ligon, “we have here,
but very few [sheepe]; and these do not like well the pasture, being very unfit for them;
a soure tough and saplesse grasse, and some poisonous plant they find, which
breeds diseases amongst them, and so they dye away, they never are fat, and we
thought a while the reason had been, their too much heate with their wool, and so
got them often shorne; but that would not cure them, yet the Ews bear always two
Lambs, their flesh when we tried any of them had a very faint taste, so that I do not
think they are fit to be bred or kept in that Country: other sheep we have there, which
are brought from Guinny and Binny, and those have haire growing on them instead of
wool; and are liker Goates than Sheep, yet their flesh is tasted more like mutton than
the other”.
“Guinny” is clearly Guinea, the Gulf rather than the present country of that name.
“Binny” may be-Benin, or Benny on the Niger Delta.
It is clear that wool sheep did not thrive; nothing is said about the thrift of the hair
sheep. The curious thing is that the high fertility is attributed to the wool sheep
whereas it is now the hair sheep which exhibit this characteristic. Could this have
been a result of crossbreeding combined with selection? A hundred years later the
wool sheep had apparently died out since Hughes (1750) wrote: “The Sheep that are
natural to this climate and are chiefly bred here, are hairy like Goats. To be covered
with Wool, would be as prejudicial to them in these hot Climates as it is useful in
Winter Countries for Shelter and Warmth”.
At present the Ministry of Agriculture estimates that there are something over 30,000
sheep in Barbados; about one-third are purebred Blackbelly …, another one-third are
grade Blackbelly (off-type in colour or with white spots) and the remaining are
“others” (see Frontispiece). The last category includes hair sheep of other colours
such as, white, tan, black or pied, and crosses with Blackhead Persian and wool
sheep (mainly Wiltshire Horn). In fact in or around 1950, simultaneous importations
of Wiltshire Horn sheep from the U.K. occurred in Barbados (Patterson, 1976),
Tobago (Trinidad and Tobago, 1953) and Guyana (Devendra, 1975) with the
objective of improving the quality of local sheep by crossbreeding. It has been
estimated in Barbados that about 10 percent of the lambs born from woolless sheep
at present are more or less woolly and these are not kept for breeding.
The Blackbelly was the commonest breed on the estates surveyed by Patterson and
Nurse (1974). Sixty-three percent had only this breed and on the others the dominant
type was Blackbelly crossbred. A few farms kept Wiltshires. The Blackbelly was the
dominant breed on all the small farms in the survey; Blackbelly crosses were next in
importance and Wiltshires were present on only 12 of the 97 farms surveyed.”
North American Hair Sheep
Finding evidence of any particular subspecies of sheep let alone hair sheep in the
literature is a lonely and rare experience because so little history was reduced to
writing and so much history was passed on in the form of oral history that more
specific details tend to become lost from one telling to the next. Evidently, hair sheep
flocks have quietly maintained their existence tucked away behind the scenes in
distant pastures on remote farms like so many other livestock pursuits in the
isolated state of New Mexico, a saving grace as it turns out in the preservation of
many aspects of cowboy/ranching history as well as a saving grace in preserving the
almost extinct NM Dahl sheep. New Mexico Dahl sheep share most characteristics
with other hair sheep most notably Texas Dall sporting a coat of hair along with a
coat of light wool which sheds in the spring and summer. Both breeds’ rams have
beautifully horned rams, but the New Mexico Dahl breed is distinctive as it shares
some characteristics with Rocky Mountain Big Horn sheep such as horned ewes,
larger based horns, muscular body frames, some dark colored hooves, and a more
flannel looking pelt. Until DNA tests are administered to NM Dahl sheep to verify Big
Horn out crossing ancestry we live with the theory that during that feral four hundred
years in remote New Mexico Mountains and deserts from time to time when NM Dahl
ewes were in estrus, Rocky Mountain Big Horn rams answered the call of nature and
bred some of these ewes.
Family journals, when they can be found are a rich source of history and should be
preserved and published at any cost. The first mention of hair sheep I found was in
the family journals (provided in 1998 by the Mascareñas family of Belen, NM) of
some of the founding families of New Mexico. Specifically, the family of Juan Lopez
Holguin, born in Extremadura, Spain, 1560 who traveled to Mexico City where he
married Catalina de Villanueva. Their daughter, Ana Maria Ortiz, born circa 1570,
wife of Cristobal Baca, born 1567 in Mexico City refers to one of the few most
portable animals salvaged during the 1680 Indian Pueblo massacre as they fled
Santa Fe and resettled in the Las Cruces, NM area. She makes a point of identifying
los “borregos de pelo” “hair sheep,” as the ones selected to make the trip, as
opposed to the slower unshorn “borregos de lana,” woolies, abandoned in Santa
Fe. In another later passage, in the early 1700s there is mentioned by Maria
Hurtado, wife of Manuel Baca, born in Santa Fe a list of animals brought with them
from Bernalillo, NM to the new town of Alburquerque, NM which included, “una media
docena de vacas, e once borregos especiales de pelo.” These are the only
references to hair sheep specifically which I find documenting the importation of hair
sheep in North America.
The wool sheep industry has so dominated sheep ranching in America that there is
hardly any mention of hair sheep in historical accounts. An effort to revive the New
Mexican Hair sheep breed is being made at Terra Patre Farm, Belen, NM.
Professor Lemuel Goode at North Carolina University experimented with
crossbreeding Mouflon, Rambouilette (Merino), and Barbados Blackbelly sheep in
1971. The cross resulted in a subspecies which is generally referred to as the
Corsican sheep. It has a wide variety of colors and color patterns ranging from pure
black, pure white and spotted combinations. The state of Texas enjoying a healthy
“canned hunt” industry has bred these variations in turn into more sub species with
larger more impressive horns for trophy hunts. As noted above the black strain is
called “Black Hawaiian,” the white, “Texas Dall,” and the spotted, “Painted Desert.”
The states assigned to the names are not where these sheep originated. They were
arbitrarily assigned as a marketing strategy.
Late twentieth century experiments with Rocky Mountain Big horn/domesticated
crossed sheep even with AI, (artificial insemination), programs the offspring were
born without sufficient immune systems to combat domestic sheep diseases,
particularly pneumonia. The lambs died off before reaching sexual maturity.
However, early twenty first century programs have successfully out crossed wild
Rocky Mountain Big Horn and Alaskan Dahl, Ovis Dali Dali, sheep with Mouflon and
other domestic hair sheep.
RAISING “HAIR” SHEEP versus RAISING “WOOLIES”
At this point readers who are considering getting into the rewarding sheep business
are begging the question “what next.” This section provides an overview of the
pluses and minuses of raising hair sheep.
Selling Points:
The hair sheep industry is experiencing a wave of popularity since the synthetic fabric
industry has displaced much of the wool industry. Several relatively new breeds have
emerged that have spurred more interest. Consequently hair sheep numbers have
shown a dramatic increase in numbers.
Hair sheep have several unique traits that appeal to livestock producers who want to
diversify their enterprises.
• They are easy keepers, being more hardy and disease/parasite resistant than
woolies; lambs having fewer birthing complications and being more vigorous with
low mortality rates.
• Their meat is tastier, leaner, and healthier.
• They make money for the producer. By comparison, they are cheaper to feed as
20% of food consumption goes into the production (growth) of wool in woolen
breeds.
• They are cheaper to feed also because they require lower levels of protein to
achieve the same weight gains and growth, surviving on low quality grasses and
weeds. In fact they thrive on low nutrient browse that other sheep breeds would
suffer and die on, and prefer weeds and short grasses that horses and cattle will not
eat.
• They are compatible with most other livestock in terms of shared space and
diet.
• They are non-seasonal breeders, more prolific than other breeds, (greater
twining fecundity), with strong mothering instincts.
• They are easier to manage than goats.
• They are more alert and possess a strong herding instinct which reduces
losses due to predation. Rams frequently will turn and fight feral dogs and other
canines.
• Pelts of these sheep produce high quality leather that has a high potential for
sales. This market is in the early development stage.
• The growing ethnic market demand for sheep has made them a desirable
enterprise with increased cash flow by the October through Easter price premiums
for sheep.
• Taste studies show a preference for the taste of hair sheep meat over the
mutton flavor of woolen breeds.
• They are less labor intensive as intact males may be desired, so docking and
castration practices are minimized. They require little or no worming depending on
pasturing practices.
• Numbers of available breeding animals for most hair sheep breeds are
limited, so demand and prices are high. Trophy ram prices range between $500.00
and $3,000.00 each!
In short, these breeds normally have strong tendencies for no wool, internal parasite
resistance, prolific lamb production, good mother habits, grazing low quality forage
and browse. A recent comprehensive literature review (by D.R. Notter at Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg 24061-0306 and published in
the American Society of Animal Science, 1999) discusses these traits and origins in
more detail. All domestic hair sheep in the U.S. originated from hair sheep from
Africa first imported by the Spanish and Portuguese colonists beginning in the 15th
century.
These sheep tend to store fat internally, reach market conditions on forage, and
contain more healthy fatty acids with less fat on commercial cuts with a unique
desirable flavor. Thus, they have their own unique market for meat. That market is the
ethnic market which is as high and seasonally higher, price wise, as the traditional
lamb market. Very light lambs are often in high demand in this niche market. Meat
associated preponderance such as fatty acid contents, HDL/LDL cholesterol levels
and total fat show in early studies of hair sheep, the pure hair sheep breeds have
been shown to have a more healthy meat that is similar to goat meat. Both animal
species tend to store their fat internally.
Minimally, you can expect 150 percent lamb crop (one lambing) with the ewes which
bear a single lamb, and three lamb crops in two years. Ewes which consistently twin
will produce twice those numbers or 300 percent lamb crop.
The potential value of the pelts in the leather market is improving as buyers are more
and more recognizing that hair sheep pelts are of a better quality, comparable to goat
leather.
On the negative side with the exception of Wiltshire Horn, Stumberg, and New Mexico
Dall in general, these breeds are smaller, thin muscled and slower growing than
many of the woolen or woolen crossbreeds. They are generally more stressed when
in confinement such as maintenance work or pen feeding.
NEW MEXICAN DAHL SHEEP
New Mexico Dahl sheep appeal to both the meat and hunting industries, sporting
trophy size horns on large muscular bodies. They are characterized by all the
attributes outlined in the list of selling points above. These sheep are described as
never shear, white in color, (sometimes colored) with both ewes and rams horned,
ewes’ horns no longer than about nine inches. They are excellent flockers, with high
lamb survivability. Majestic Rams quickly grow long beautiful horns with massive
horn bases. Their average weight ranges between 160 and 250 pounds, roughly 50
to 100% increase in size over other hair breeds. The ewes are excellent mothers
that are prolific and year-round breeders. They do well in feedlots or on the range.
They are being bred selectively to include these good qualities as well as their
frequency of multiple births. They are being selectively bred to exclude the spindly,
bloated appearance of some otherwise handsome trophy hunting breeds.
By Donald Chávez Y Gilbert
The First Domesticated Hair Sheep
While there is a lack of precise certitude in the case of Churro Sheep history, where
“hair” sheep are concerned there appears to be utter confusion around the country.
One hour on the internet reading assorted hair sheep web site’ descriptions of the
history of hair sheep and you will find almost as many arbitrary variations,
descriptions, and histories as there are web sites. An effort to site proper authorities
on hair sheep here should narrow down the parameters and lend some credence
and consistency to the real history of hair sheep.
Between six and ten thousand years BC sheep, goats, and cattle were being
domesticated. Domesticated woolen sheep, “woolies,” are so ubiquitous that it is
probably safe to assume that most non-ranching folks are of the mindset that wool
have always been “woolies.” As a matter of clarification, I should begin this section
by stating that it is not natural for sheep to have a heavy fleece all year round.
The first sheep domesticated by our ancestors were wild hair sheep. Hair sheep to
varying degrees, depending on climate naturally grow warm insulating wool as well
as hair (like that of a goat) during the cold months of the year. As the weather
warms, the wool fleece sheds leaving only the hair behind. This is a practical
adaptation. Over the past eight thousand years, mankind has selectively bred sheep
more for its’ ability to produce wool and less for its hardiness. That is why the
Churra sheep imported from the Iberian Peninsula which still carries some of these
attributes of more primitive sheep like fecundity, hair plus wool, as well as hardiness
were so successful over other strains of sheep and were a perfect strain to maintain
by the first Hispanic ranchers living through many spells of hard times. The hardiest
people kept the hardiest livestock.
There are many species of these wild sheep ranging in habitats in what is referred to
as the Great Arc, (like the shape of ram horns), of the Wild Sheep, beginning with
Mouflon sheep in western Europe across the Bering Straits to the American
Bighorns in southwestern USA. James L. Clark has published a great book on
these ancient wild sheep called The Great Arc of the Wild Sheep, University of
Oklahoma press, 1994. The ancient sheep domesticated by man originated globally
north of the equator and have been disseminated by nomadic people all over the
world. One example mentioned above sites the French who borrowed sheep from
Spain when French King Louis XVI imported over three hundred Spanish Merinos for
his estate at Rambouilette, France in 1786 crossing them with his native French
sheep and naming them after the French community “Rambouilette.” And so went
the practice of borrowing and renaming animals until there are far too many
subspecies to mention.
Since the decline of the wool industry in the twentieth century, domesticated hair
sheep, also referred to as meat sheep have become more popular for a number of
reasons. They are great sheep for the beginner or hobbyist. As mentioned above,
hair sheep are more resistant to disease, parasites, and climate changes. They are
less expensive and easier to keep because they need no shearing, are hardy,
prolific, and more forgiving than woolies. Finally, their meat lacks that mutton taste
some people find distasteful.
The first reference to hair sheep appears in Spanish journals, references to their
discoveries in the Canary Islands. The best reference to the origins of hair sheep
comes from translated archives. This is a direct verbatim quote, (albeit a bit
awkward), from Spanish to English by A. Rodero, J.V. Delgado and E. Rodero - El
Ganado Andaluz Primitivo Y Sus Implicaciones En El Descubrimiento De America. “It
is clear, because of in the archipelago there did not exist cattle, horses, asses or
camels before the (Spanish) conquest and the pre-Hispanic canary sheep had
special characteristics (they present hair, not wool), not mentioned in America’s
farming at this time.”
Although these hair sheep are not described any further to give us a clue as to
whether they were related to modern St. Croix sheep, Blackbellys (AKA Barbados),
Wiltshire Horn or any other of the known older hair sheep species, these are the hair
sheep the Spanish shipped to the Americas. He continues…“The Spaniards found
the Canaries inhabited by a mythic people called the Guanches, coming from the
vicinal Africa as was shown by their racial characteristic (Mediterranean) and their
language (similar to the Berberlanguage), at though with the precedence of other
ethnic groups in a lesser degree (Nordics, Negroids and Cro-Magnon), all of them
with a difficultly explicable origin. The Guanches were principally farmers, and the
waitings there mentioned the presence of goats, pigs, sheep, and a high abundance
of dogs,(canines); the last probably gave the name to these Islands: Canarias, from
the Latin Canis. The characteristics of these livestock showed a clear African roots.
The location of the archipelago as a crossroad between continents and the demand
of products from the new colonies brought good commercial
profits to the Islands, after the Discovery of America.” “The Canary Islands were a
necessary stop on the way to America. In 1404 Castilla occupied it permanently. It
was the beginning of their colonization and europeatization.”
When Spanish livestock arrived on the other side of the Atlantic in the Americas they
referred to them as Criollo, a wide all encompassing term applied to all species
such as cattle and sheep, and horses, e.g., Cuban Criollo horse, Mexican corriente
cattle, and Navajo churro sheep. As time progressed some species took on the
names of their specially bred characteristics and others kept the Criollo name.
According to I.L. Mason’s World Dictionary of Livestock Breeds, Third Edition. C.A.B.
International, Criolo is also known as: “Creole, Chilludo, Pampa, Colombian, Lucero,
Tarhumara, Uruguayan, Venezuelan. The Criollo breed developed in the highlands of
Bolivia, Colombia, Ecuador, Guatemala, Mexico, Peru and Venezuela over hundreds
of years. The ancestors of the present day Criollo is believed to be the Spanish
Churro, which was brought to this area in the mid-1500. The present day breed has
a coarse fleece of carpet wool type. They are typically white, black or pied.”
There are a number of species of hair sheep around the world, both tropical and
temperate subspecies. As they specialize, registries are being established and
standards set as guideposts for differentiating one from another. For our purposes
here I will concentrate on breeds popular to the United States of America, with
particular emphasis on the Mouflon, Barbados Blackbelly, and Rambouillet, (French
for Spanish Merino), which are the foundation stock of the vast majority of our horned
American Hair Sheep breeds; Corsican, Black Hawaiian, Painted Desert, New
Mexican Dall, and, Texas Dall to name a few trophy hunt sheep. The Katahdin,
Dorper, and St. Croix, which are also hair sheep but, are polled, (hornless), are
considered exclusively meat sheep. The New Mexican Dall is uniquely bred to
appeal to both meat and trophy hunt customers with large muscular bodies sporting
massive horns.
St. Croix sheep are like the Barbados an old breed brought to the Americas by the
Spanish and Portuguese merchants and explorers. Katahdin sheep date back to the
late 1950's with the importation of St. Croix sheep from the Caribbean by Michael
Piel, to Maine, U.S.A. His goal was to combine the shedding coat, prolificacy and the
hardiness of the Virgin Island sheep, with the meat, conformation and rate of growth
of the woolen breeds. He experimented with crosses between the hair sheep and
various British breeds, especially the Suffolk. Later, he collected a flock of Wiltshire
Horned Sheep in the mid 1970's, from England incorporated them into the flock in
order to add size, and improve carcass quality even further. He named his sheep
"Katahdin" after Mount Katahdin in Maine
Barbados Blackbelly Sheep
According to R.I. Rastogi, H.E. Williams, and F.C. Youssef in their Origin and History
of the Barbados Blackbelly, “in tropical America there are two quite different types of
sheep. In the highlands there is a woolen sheep, called Criollo, which originated
from the coarse-woolen Churro imported from Spain during the period 1548 to 1812.
It is a small to medium-sized animal producing a small quantity of coarse wool
which is important for the cottage wool industry. The males have horns. Colour is
often white but coloured and pied animals are common.
This is the principal breed in Mexico, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Colombia, Venezuela,
Guyana, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia. There are also small populations in Haiti and the
Dominican Republic.
The second type of sheep is a wool-less or hair sheep whose colour is commonly
tan (red-brown), white, or patterns involving tan. Males lack horns but are
characterized by a shoulder and throat ruff of long hair. This hair sheep is found in
many Caribbean islands and in mainland countries along the north coast of South
America. Populations will be described from Barbados, Virgin Islands, Bahamas,
Cuba, Mexico, Dominican Republic, Colombia and Brazil. The hair sheep is of
African origin but, in countries where wooled Criollo sheep do not occur (e.g. Cuba),
it may be termed “Criollo” which tends to be confusing.”
Rodero’s citation of Spanish discovery of hair sheep as being of African origin and
“the location of the archipelago as a crossroad between continents and the demand
of products from the new colonies brought good commercial profits to the Islands,
after the Discovery of America,” makes it reasonably clear that these sheep were
exported and marketed in the Americas by Spanish and Portuguese merchants,
beginning with the Carrabean Islands chain between Antigua to Barbados, and St.
Croix.
R. Lydekker in The Sheep and its Cousins, London: George Allen Press wrote about
the Guinea long-legged sheep:
“Early in the seventeenth century these sheep were carried by the Portuguese to the
northern districts of Brazil, while about the same time, or perhaps still earlier, they
were introduced by the Spaniards into the West Indies and Guiana….”
Notwithstanding the obvious connection with the Spanish, R.K. Rastogi, H.E.
Williams and F.C. Youssef do not credit the Spanish or the Portuguese with the
introduction of hair sheep to the Island of Barbados. They do state, however, that, “it
is generally agreed that these hair sheep were introduced into Barbados from West
Africa. They have existed in Barbados for well over three hundred years.” Another
well known African hair sheep introduced in the 1500’s by Iberian explorers is the St.
Croix sheep. Instead of creditinig the Spanish or Portuguese predecessors they cite
Ligon who guesses that the Blackbelly hair sheep “must have been introduced
between 1624 and 1657.” That is the time when British explorer Sir William
Curteens during a storm accidently blew onto on the Isle of Barbados after the
Portuguese and Spanish had come and gone.
R.K. Rastogi, H.E. Williams and F.C. Youssef go on to quote Ligon, “we have here,
but very few [sheepe]; and these do not like well the pasture, being very unfit for them;
a soure tough and saplesse grasse, and some poisonous plant they find, which
breeds diseases amongst them, and so they dye away, they never are fat, and we
thought a while the reason had been, their too much heate with their wool, and so
got them often shorne; but that would not cure them, yet the Ews bear always two
Lambs, their flesh when we tried any of them had a very faint taste, so that I do not
think they are fit to be bred or kept in that Country: other sheep we have there, which
are brought from Guinny and Binny, and those have haire growing on them instead of
wool; and are liker Goates than Sheep, yet their flesh is tasted more like mutton than
the other”.
“Guinny” is clearly Guinea, the Gulf rather than the present country of that name.
“Binny” may be-Benin, or Benny on the Niger Delta.
It is clear that wool sheep did not thrive; nothing is said about the thrift of the hair
sheep. The curious thing is that the high fertility is attributed to the wool sheep
whereas it is now the hair sheep which exhibit this characteristic. Could this have
been a result of crossbreeding combined with selection? A hundred years later the
wool sheep had apparently died out since Hughes (1750) wrote: “The Sheep that are
natural to this climate and are chiefly bred here, are hairy like Goats. To be covered
with Wool, would be as prejudicial to them in these hot Climates as it is useful in
Winter Countries for Shelter and Warmth”.
At present the Ministry of Agriculture estimates that there are something over 30,000
sheep in Barbados; about one-third are purebred Blackbelly …, another one-third are
grade Blackbelly (off-type in colour or with white spots) and the remaining are
“others” (see Frontispiece). The last category includes hair sheep of other colours
such as, white, tan, black or pied, and crosses with Blackhead Persian and wool
sheep (mainly Wiltshire Horn). In fact in or around 1950, simultaneous importations
of Wiltshire Horn sheep from the U.K. occurred in Barbados (Patterson, 1976),
Tobago (Trinidad and Tobago, 1953) and Guyana (Devendra, 1975) with the
objective of improving the quality of local sheep by crossbreeding. It has been
estimated in Barbados that about 10 percent of the lambs born from woolless sheep
at present are more or less woolly and these are not kept for breeding.
The Blackbelly was the commonest breed on the estates surveyed by Patterson and
Nurse (1974). Sixty-three percent had only this breed and on the others the dominant
type was Blackbelly crossbred. A few farms kept Wiltshires. The Blackbelly was the
dominant breed on all the small farms in the survey; Blackbelly crosses were next in
importance and Wiltshires were present on only 12 of the 97 farms surveyed.”
North American Hair Sheep
Finding evidence of any particular subspecies of sheep let alone hair sheep in the
literature is a lonely and rare experience because so little history was reduced to
writing and so much history was passed on in the form of oral history that more
specific details tend to become lost from one telling to the next. Evidently, hair sheep
flocks have quietly maintained their existence tucked away behind the scenes in
distant pastures on remote farms like so many other livestock pursuits in the
isolated state of New Mexico, a saving grace as it turns out in the preservation of
many aspects of cowboy/ranching history as well as a saving grace in preserving the
almost extinct NM Dahl sheep. New Mexico Dahl sheep share most characteristics
with other hair sheep most notably Texas Dall sporting a coat of hair along with a
coat of light wool which sheds in the spring and summer. Both breeds’ rams have
beautifully horned rams, but the New Mexico Dahl breed is distinctive as it shares
some characteristics with Rocky Mountain Big Horn sheep such as horned ewes,
larger based horns, muscular body frames, some dark colored hooves, and a more
flannel looking pelt. Until DNA tests are administered to NM Dahl sheep to verify Big
Horn out crossing ancestry we live with the theory that during that feral four hundred
years in remote New Mexico Mountains and deserts from time to time when NM Dahl
ewes were in estrus, Rocky Mountain Big Horn rams answered the call of nature and
bred some of these ewes.
Family journals, when they can be found are a rich source of history and should be
preserved and published at any cost. The first mention of hair sheep I found was in
the family journals (provided in 1998 by the Mascareñas family of Belen, NM) of
some of the founding families of New Mexico. Specifically, the family of Juan Lopez
Holguin, born in Extremadura, Spain, 1560 who traveled to Mexico City where he
married Catalina de Villanueva. Their daughter, Ana Maria Ortiz, born circa 1570,
wife of Cristobal Baca, born 1567 in Mexico City refers to one of the few most
portable animals salvaged during the 1680 Indian Pueblo massacre as they fled
Santa Fe and resettled in the Las Cruces, NM area. She makes a point of identifying
los “borregos de pelo” “hair sheep,” as the ones selected to make the trip, as
opposed to the slower unshorn “borregos de lana,” woolies, abandoned in Santa
Fe. In another later passage, in the early 1700s there is mentioned by Maria
Hurtado, wife of Manuel Baca, born in Santa Fe a list of animals brought with them
from Bernalillo, NM to the new town of Alburquerque, NM which included, “una media
docena de vacas, e once borregos especiales de pelo.” These are the only
references to hair sheep specifically which I find documenting the importation of hair
sheep in North America.
The wool sheep industry has so dominated sheep ranching in America that there is
hardly any mention of hair sheep in historical accounts. An effort to revive the New
Mexican Hair sheep breed is being made at Terra Patre Farm, Belen, NM.
Professor Lemuel Goode at North Carolina University experimented with
crossbreeding Mouflon, Rambouilette (Merino), and Barbados Blackbelly sheep in
1971. The cross resulted in a subspecies which is generally referred to as the
Corsican sheep. It has a wide variety of colors and color patterns ranging from pure
black, pure white and spotted combinations. The state of Texas enjoying a healthy
“canned hunt” industry has bred these variations in turn into more sub species with
larger more impressive horns for trophy hunts. As noted above the black strain is
called “Black Hawaiian,” the white, “Texas Dall,” and the spotted, “Painted Desert.”
The states assigned to the names are not where these sheep originated. They were
arbitrarily assigned as a marketing strategy.
Late twentieth century experiments with Rocky Mountain Big horn/domesticated
crossed sheep even with AI, (artificial insemination), programs the offspring were
born without sufficient immune systems to combat domestic sheep diseases,
particularly pneumonia. The lambs died off before reaching sexual maturity.
However, early twenty first century programs have successfully out crossed wild
Rocky Mountain Big Horn and Alaskan Dahl, Ovis Dali Dali, sheep with Mouflon and
other domestic hair sheep.
RAISING “HAIR” SHEEP versus RAISING “WOOLIES”
At this point readers who are considering getting into the rewarding sheep business
are begging the question “what next.” This section provides an overview of the
pluses and minuses of raising hair sheep.
Selling Points:
The hair sheep industry is experiencing a wave of popularity since the synthetic fabric
industry has displaced much of the wool industry. Several relatively new breeds have
emerged that have spurred more interest. Consequently hair sheep numbers have
shown a dramatic increase in numbers.
Hair sheep have several unique traits that appeal to livestock producers who want to
diversify their enterprises.
• They are easy keepers, being more hardy and disease/parasite resistant than
woolies; lambs having fewer birthing complications and being more vigorous with
low mortality rates.
• Their meat is tastier, leaner, and healthier.
• They make money for the producer. By comparison, they are cheaper to feed as
20% of food consumption goes into the production (growth) of wool in woolen
breeds.
• They are cheaper to feed also because they require lower levels of protein to
achieve the same weight gains and growth, surviving on low quality grasses and
weeds. In fact they thrive on low nutrient browse that other sheep breeds would
suffer and die on, and prefer weeds and short grasses that horses and cattle will not
eat.
• They are compatible with most other livestock in terms of shared space and
diet.
• They are non-seasonal breeders, more prolific than other breeds, (greater
twining fecundity), with strong mothering instincts.
• They are easier to manage than goats.
• They are more alert and possess a strong herding instinct which reduces
losses due to predation. Rams frequently will turn and fight feral dogs and other
canines.
• Pelts of these sheep produce high quality leather that has a high potential for
sales. This market is in the early development stage.
• The growing ethnic market demand for sheep has made them a desirable
enterprise with increased cash flow by the October through Easter price premiums
for sheep.
• Taste studies show a preference for the taste of hair sheep meat over the
mutton flavor of woolen breeds.
• They are less labor intensive as intact males may be desired, so docking and
castration practices are minimized. They require little or no worming depending on
pasturing practices.
• Numbers of available breeding animals for most hair sheep breeds are
limited, so demand and prices are high. Trophy ram prices range between $500.00
and $3,000.00 each!
In short, these breeds normally have strong tendencies for no wool, internal parasite
resistance, prolific lamb production, good mother habits, grazing low quality forage
and browse. A recent comprehensive literature review (by D.R. Notter at Virginia
Polytechnic Institute and State University, Blacksburg 24061-0306 and published in
the American Society of Animal Science, 1999) discusses these traits and origins in
more detail. All domestic hair sheep in the U.S. originated from hair sheep from
Africa first imported by the Spanish and Portuguese colonists beginning in the 15th
century.
These sheep tend to store fat internally, reach market conditions on forage, and
contain more healthy fatty acids with less fat on commercial cuts with a unique
desirable flavor. Thus, they have their own unique market for meat. That market is the
ethnic market which is as high and seasonally higher, price wise, as the traditional
lamb market. Very light lambs are often in high demand in this niche market. Meat
associated preponderance such as fatty acid contents, HDL/LDL cholesterol levels
and total fat show in early studies of hair sheep, the pure hair sheep breeds have
been shown to have a more healthy meat that is similar to goat meat. Both animal
species tend to store their fat internally.
Minimally, you can expect 150 percent lamb crop (one lambing) with the ewes which
bear a single lamb, and three lamb crops in two years. Ewes which consistently twin
will produce twice those numbers or 300 percent lamb crop.
The potential value of the pelts in the leather market is improving as buyers are more
and more recognizing that hair sheep pelts are of a better quality, comparable to goat
leather.
On the negative side with the exception of Wiltshire Horn, Stumberg, and New Mexico
Dall in general, these breeds are smaller, thin muscled and slower growing than
many of the woolen or woolen crossbreeds. They are generally more stressed when
in confinement such as maintenance work or pen feeding.
NEW MEXICAN DAHL SHEEP
New Mexico Dahl sheep appeal to both the meat and hunting industries, sporting
trophy size horns on large muscular bodies. They are characterized by all the
attributes outlined in the list of selling points above. These sheep are described as
never shear, white in color, (sometimes colored) with both ewes and rams horned,
ewes’ horns no longer than about nine inches. They are excellent flockers, with high
lamb survivability. Majestic Rams quickly grow long beautiful horns with massive
horn bases. Their average weight ranges between 160 and 250 pounds, roughly 50
to 100% increase in size over other hair breeds. The ewes are excellent mothers
that are prolific and year-round breeders. They do well in feedlots or on the range.
They are being bred selectively to include these good qualities as well as their
frequency of multiple births. They are being selectively bred to exclude the spindly,
bloated appearance of some otherwise handsome trophy hunting breeds.
Hair Sheep History
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