longers said:
What breed would you go for? Eating or wool? I know very little but are the two mutually exclusive?
No. My friend keeps Shetlands, mainly for the fleece (she's a spinner and knitter) but the spare ones (males not destined for breeding and surplus females - 3 last time) go off for meat. The Shetland isn't a modern meat breed, so they aren't big, but they are tasty. She's expecting to be lambing in the next couple of weekends
Commercially, these days it's all down to how fast a breed matures. Meat animals need to mature quickly to give a quick value comeback, whereas you want to keep a fleece animal for a couple of years to get a few fleeces - by which time the meat is less fashionable mutton. In practical modern terms however, fleeces are such a worthless product, I think most commercial flocks are concentrated on for meat. That's a relatively recent thing - it was only in the 18th C that sheep were deliberately bred for meat conformation (as far as we know. See my thesis for updates, if I ever get there).
Some breeds are better known for wool - shetlands, the longwools etc, and their fleeces will have some value, to a specialist market. But I gather that the run-of-the-mill fleece market is not high value.
Shetlands are a nice breed - small and handleable, even with the horns. And the Lincoln Longwools and similar are wonderfully daft looking, with their ringlets.