American Tunis Sheep Breed – Everything You Need to Know

The American Tunis sheep is a beautiful deep creamy colored with a pretty red face and legs. They are also quite an ancient sheep with a rich history dating back to a very old fat-tailed sheep breed documented in ancient texts!
The Tunis is a large breed of sheep that is very docile and bred for its full-flavored meat and wooly coat.

EWE BREEDING & MILKING INFORMATION

SHEEP MEAT PRODUCTION INFORMATION

SHEEP WOOL PRODUCTION INFORMATION

SHEEP SKIN PRODUCTION INFORMATION

GOOD TO KNOW ABOUT THE AMERICAN TUNIS SHEEP

GENERAL INFORMATION

The Tunis sheep breed is classified as a large breed of sheep, but it is not as big as most other meat sheep breeds.

The Tunis is one of the oldest livestock breeds in America and their influx into America dates back to the 1700’s.

They Tunis lambs are born with a double undercoat of fur to help them cope with the elements when they are born.

Left uncut the Tunis sheep tail grows very thick and can interfere with breeding.

Tunis ewes can and usually do breed out of season and will produce lambs in the Autumn months as they are very prolific breeders.

HISTORY

The Tunis breed of goat has a very ancient and interesting history that dates back to before the dawn of Christianity.
The American Tunis is the name given to the Tunis variety of sheep that originally originate from Tunisia in North Africa. These sheep were called or described as either “broad tailed”, “Barbary” or “fat tailed” sheep.

They were imported to the States in the late 1700’s where they were sent as a gift for George Washington by the Bey of Tunis.
George Washington entrusted these sheep to a man named Judge Richard Peters who bred the sheep with rams and distributed the lambs from this union across the country.

References to this sheep breed are journaled in the journals of some famous American names such as Richard Peters, Charles Roundtree and Thomas Jefferson.
Through selective breeding the Tunis gradually developed into the breed we know today as the American Tunis sheep breed.

The Tunis sheep breed became a recognized American Livestock breed in the late 18th to early 19th century. This makes them one of the oldest livestock breeds to be developed and recognized in America.

The Tunis sheep breed was prevalent throughout the southeastern States and the mid Atlantic States. They became very well adapted to the climate of these regions and thrived becoming the mainstay of sheep production in these areas of the United States.

During the Civil war, the Tunis sheep breed was nearly wiped up if not thanks to Maynard Spiegener. From South Carolina Maynard Spigener hid the last remaining flock of the American Tunis sheep along the Congaree River near the city of Columbia.

After the war, these sheep were once again bred in the New England and Great Lakes region. It was not until more recent years that the Tunis breed was once again found to be in the Southeast.
They are a large breed with a thick wooly fleece and very distinctive red faces with lop ears and red legs.

They are a calm and docile breed with a fleece that weighs around seven to twelve pounds and turns white when processing. It is a medium grade wool.
They are good graders, heavy milkers and make great mothers to their lambs.
They have a good meat to bone ratio on their carcass and market lambs are quite economical to raise.

Through growing sustainable agricultural movements in the United States, the Tunis Sheep breeds numbers have been gaining ration. They are a very popular homesteaders sheep breed choice as they have a good low input meat, wool and even milk production value.
They are also excellent grazers that tend to thrive in a forage-based production system which also makes them really easy to keep and maintain.

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