The New Mexico Farm & Ranch Heritage Museum in Las Cruces has added a third breed of sheep to its livestock program – a breed created in New Mexico.

Three Debouillet sheep – one ram and two ewe lambs – from the R.C. “Punch” Jones ranch near Tatum, N.M., arrived on Tuesday. The Debouillet breed was created by the Jones family in the 1920s from Delaine-Merino and Rambouillet crosses. In an oral history interview in 2009, Mr. Jones talked about his father’s goal of combining the size and body type of the Rambouillet sheep, with the wool of the Delaine-Merino.

Oral history: https://www.nmfarmandranchmuseum.org/oralhistory/detail.php?interview=245

The Museum also has Navajo-Churro sheep, as well as Suffolk. Other animals in the livestock program are Boer and Angora goats, Holstein and Jersey dairy cows, horses, donkeys, and seven different breeds of beef cattle – Angus, Brahman, Brangus, Charolais, Corriente, Hereford and Longhorn.

During an accreditation review last spring by the American Alliance of Museums, the reviewers called the Museum’s livestock program a “national model.”

The Museum is located at 4100 Dripping Springs Road in Las Cruces and is part of the New Mexico Department of Cultural Affairs. Hours are 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Saturday, and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Admission is $5 for adults, $4 for senior citizens, and $3 for children 4 to 17. Children 3 and under and Museum members receive free admission.

For more information, please call (575) 522-4100.