Sheep

Ovis aries

3679 breeders in the directory Find Sheep breeders

Sheep, Ovis aries, are domesticated ruminants developed over thousands of years for wool, meat, milk, hides, land management, and cultural uses. They range from fine-wool Merinos to hardy hill sheep, dairy breeds, hair sheep, and regionally adapted landraces. Most are flock animals with strong grazing instincts, seasonal or managed breeding patterns, and breed traits shaped by climate, terrain, parasite pressure, and production goals.

Good sheep management depends on pasture planning, clean water, mineral balance, hoof care, parasite control, lambing supervision, predator protection, and shearing or hair-shedding needs. Flock records are practical tools for tracking parentage, lambing outcomes, fleece quality, milk yield, treatments, and culling decisions. Smallholders, farms, research flocks, and conservation breeders often choose sheep by matching the breed to local forage, weather, handling facilities, and market or preservation goals.

Quick facts

Breeds: 406
For sale now: 2 live listings ($600 to $5,900)
Breeders & farms: 3,679
Public profiles: 38
Herdbook records: 15
Guides & articles: 20

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Sheep for Sale

2 listings ready to browse.

Sheep Herdbook

15 public records with registry, identity, lineage, or availability context.

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15 herdbook records available

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Sheep Profiles

38 profiles shared by the community.

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Fynn

Babydoll Southdown · Sheep

Male · 4 months

By Jennifer Schmitt

Pierre

Babydoll Southdown · Sheep

Male · 4 months

By Amanda Fowler

Wooliam

Babydoll Southdown · Sheep

Male · 2 months

By Hanna Dunn

AZ26025

Hampshire · Sheep

Male · 3 months

By Steven Mills

Sheep Breeders

3679 breeders raising sheep.

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Porter Family Livestock LLC

Missouri

Valais Blacknose

Profile Animals

Claimed

Ulfers Farms & Exotics

Bristow, Iowa

Sheep

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Claimed

Chamberlain Cattle Co.

Viroqua, Wisconsin

Valais Blacknose

Profile Animals

Claimed

Carlily Farms

Wichita, Kansas

East Friesian, Valais Blacknose

3 public profiles

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Claimed

Popular Sheep Breeds

Each breed has its own page with listings, profiles, and breeders.

Valais Blacknose

Soay

Suffolk

Barbados Blackbelly

Cheviot

Dorper

Katahdin

Leicester Longwool

Romney

Tunis

Teeswater

Clun Forest

Learn about Sheep

Guides and articles for sheep owners.

How Much Does a Sheep Weigh, and How to Estimate It

A mature sheep usually weighs somewhere between 100 and 350 pounds, and the range is that wide because breed and type drive almost everything. Small breeds often sit around 100 to 150 pounds, medium and meat breeds commonly land between 150 and 250 pounds, and the largest rams of big meat breeds can reach roughly […]

Sheep Shelter and Housing: What a Flock Needs

Most sheep do not need a warm, enclosed barn. They need a dry, draft free place to escape wind, driving rain, and hot summer sun, and they need moving air far more than they need heat. A wool fleece is superb insulation, so healthy adult sheep handle cold well and struggle more with heat and […]

Shearing Sheep: When, How Often, and Crutching

Most wool sheep are shorn once a year, and for many flocks the best time is spring, often a few weeks before lambing. Shearing keeps sheep cool and mobile, keeps the birthing area cleaner, and lowers the risk of flystrike. Hair breeds like Katahdin and Dorper shed their coat naturally and do not need shearing […]

Sheep Minerals: Why Copper Is the One That Can Kill

Sheep have a much narrower tolerance for copper than any other common livestock, and they store it silently in the liver until a stressful day releases it all at once and destroys their red blood cells. That is why the single most important rule of sheep minerals is to feed a mineral, feed, and supplement […]

Sheep Hoof Trimming and Foot Rot Prevention

Trim a sheep’s hooves when the horn wall has overgrown and started to fold under or curl over the sole, catching dirt and manure. To trim, restrain the sheep (most people tip it onto its rump), then pare the overgrown wall back until it sits level and flat with the sole. Never cut so deep […]

Sheep Gestation: How Long Ewes Are Pregnant

A ewe is pregnant for about 147 days, roughly five months. Most healthy ewes lamb somewhere in a range of about 142 to 152 days from breeding, with some variation by breed, litter size, and individual. To find your due date, count 147 days forward from the day the ewe was bred, then plan your […]

Flystrike in Sheep: Prevention and Emergency Response

Flystrike (cutaneous myiasis) is when blowflies lay eggs on a sheep and the hatched maggots feed on the living flesh. It is fast, intensely painful, and can kill within a few days if it is missed, especially in warm, humid weather. Flies are drawn to wet, soiled, dung-matted wool around the breech, plus urine stain, […]

Sheep Fencing: Electric Netting vs Woven Wire

Sheep fencing has to do two jobs at once: keep the flock in and keep predators out. Electric netting is the go to portable option for rotational grazing and for lambing paddocks, because it is quick to move and, when kept properly hot, deters coyotes and dogs as well as it contains ewes. Woven wire […]

What to Feed Sheep: Forage, Hay, and the Copper Warning

Feed sheep a diet built on forage: good pasture in the growing season and quality grass or grass-legume hay the rest of the year, with clean water and a loose sheep-specific mineral always available. Grain is a supplement, not the base, and it should be fed sparingly. The single most important rule that sets sheep […]

Sheep Deworming: FAMACHA, Fecal Egg Counts, and Refugia

Modern sheep deworming is not about drenching the whole flock on a calendar. It is about treating only the animals that need it, keeping a reservoir of drug-susceptible worms alive on purpose, and slowing the resistance that has already broken most dewormers. The tools that make this work are FAMACHA eyelid scoring, fecal egg counts, […]

CD&T Vaccine for Sheep: What It Covers and When to Give It

The CD&T vaccine is the one shot almost every sheep should get. It protects against three clostridial diseases at once: enterotoxemia caused by Clostridium perfringens types C and D (the “overeating disease” that kills fast-growing and grain-fed lambs), plus tetanus caused by Clostridium tetani. The standard plan is to booster pregnant ewes a few weeks […]

Sheep Breeding: Heat Cycles, Flushing, and Ram Management

Most sheep are seasonal breeders that start cycling as the days grow shorter in late summer and fall, so a fall breeding season gives you spring lambs. The ewe runs a roughly 17 day heat cycle with a short standing heat, so if you turn a sound ram in with a group of ewes, nearly […]

Lambing: Signs of Labor, the Stages, and a Lambing Kit

A ewe is close to lambing when she bags up (her udder fills tight with colostrum), separates from the flock, goes off feed, and starts pawing and nesting. Labor moves through three stages: cervix opening, active pushing that should deliver the first lamb within about an hour of hard straining, and passing the afterbirth. A […]

Tail Docking and Castrating Lambs: Why, When, and How

Tail docking and castrating are the two most common early management decisions on a lamb, and both come down to a simple welfare trade-off: a brief, painful procedure done cleanly and young against the longer-term problems it is meant to prevent. Docking removes most of the tail to keep the breech (the wool around the […]

Bottle-Feeding Lambs: Colostrum, Milk Replacer, and Schedule

A lamb needs bottle-feeding when it cannot nurse its dam: an orphan, a rejected lamb, one triplet or quad the ewe cannot fully feed, a weak or chilled lamb, or a ewe with mastitis or no milk. The single most important step is colostrum in the first hours of life. Get roughly 10 percent of […]

Where to Buy Sheep: Choosing a Breed, Vetting a Seller, and the Disease Tests to Ask About

The honest answer to where to buy sheep is that the source matters far less than two things you settle first: what kind of sheep you actually need, and whether the seller can prove the flock is healthy. Sheep are usually inexpensive to buy and much more expensive to keep sick, so the real cost […]

Dorper Sheep: Breed Profile, Care, and Buying Guide

The Dorper is a fast-growing South African meat sheep that sheds its own coat, so it never needs shearing. That single trait, plus its hardiness in hot and dry conditions and its willingness to breed year round, is why the Dorper has become one of the most sought-after sheep in the United States, especially for […]

Sarda Sheep: Sardinia’s Dairy Breed Behind Pecorino Cheese

The Sarda is the white dairy sheep of Sardinia, and it is the most numerous and most economically important sheep breed in Italy. It is a medium-sized, milk-first breed with a clean white face and legs, fine unpigmented skin, and, in the ewes, no horns. It is bred above all for milk, and that milk […]

Montadale Sheep: Breed Profile, Wool, and Buying Guide

The Montadale is a medium to large, all-American, dual-purpose sheep bred to do two jobs well: hang a heavy, meaty market lamb and grow a clean, very white medium-wool fleece. It has an unmistakable look, a completely open white face free of wool, clean wool-free legs, erect ears, black nose and black hooves, and a […]

Columbia Sheep: The Complete Breed Guide

Columbia Sheep: The Complete Breed Guide The Columbia is a large, white-faced, polled (hornless) American sheep bred for two jobs at once: a heavy fleece of medium wool and a fast-growing market lamb. It was developed by the United States Department of Agriculture starting in 1912 by crossing Lincoln rams on Rambouillet ewes, which makes […]