Milk/meat/fiber sheep breeds that do well in desert conditions?

We live in a very arid climate, lots of shrubs and brush but very little grass, no rain, temperatures regularly 100+ Fahrenheit. We are looking to add a ruminant to our farm, preferably sheep, our plan is to have 4 ewes and 1 ram, keep the ewes bred so that we have a constant milk supply, use the lambs for meat, and shear annually/bi-annually for fiber, all for our own personal use. From a practical perspective it seems that we are more suited to goats, but we prefer the taste of lamb and sheep's milk, but it seems like a lot of the sheep breeds that suit our needs would die in our climate, and the sheep that are suited to our climate are hair-sheep that don't milk well. We don't need a ton of meat or fiber because it's just us and we have other sources of meat (tilapia, rabbits, chickens, quail, pheasants, considering adding guineafowl) but these goats will be our sole source of milk, which we consume quite a bit of, so it's important that they're good milk producers whose milk has a high fat content, and that they can survive during the day in desert conditions.

The most optimized sheep breed I know of for your conditions and needs is Assaf (bred in Israel in the fifties for milk and meat.) Not a specialized wool breed but it does produce wool as well.

The Assaf's ancestor breed, Awassi might be better suited to pasture type management.


I know for a fact Assaf can breed year round. Awassi might be seasonal breeders.

Navajo Churios may be worth a look too. I had a hair sheep ewe who milked as well as my dairy crosses so it may be a matter of picking and choosing the milkiest individuals.