Breeds to consider

Choosing a breed of any animal will be one of the most important, if time is an issue for you.  Parasite resistance, size, growth rate, wool or no wool,  the options are abundant and if you dont know what you want can make the choice daunting.  For us the choice wasn't a conscious one.  We took what was given to us - a jacob ram bottle lamb.  As it turns out Jacobs are one of the oldest breeds with a good parasite resistance. They will give you wool and meat and the ewes make great mothers.  These sheep have horns, two and sometimes three sets of horns.  These aren't the biggest sheep for eating and in my opinion unless you like fluffy yarn, jacob wool has a tight crimp, i wouldn't pick these guys at all.  They were pretty trouble free sheep, just not my personal favorite.  Shetlands have a nice wavy wool but are also smallish sheep.  The one shetland I had was great for wool, gave me a ram lamb her first year, and was a great mother with a good disposition.  Coopworth was the best i've had so far though.  Beautiful wool, large animals and they packed on the weight fairly fast.  

Unfortunately I never saw them mother.  They didn't take the first year, I suspect my ram had height issues being a jacob shetland mix, and was giving him a second year to try with my coop ladies.  Unfortunately both girls were eaten by a bear november of their second year.  This was the second season we had been hit up by the bear for a meal.   Thanks to a kill permit from the DNR we have found that eating bear fattened on sheep still tastes like bear.....
 

For me pure breeds are not a priority.  I would cross anything that encouraged traits that are important to me.  I want to raise meat for my family first and foremost, so big animals are important to me.  I don't want chemicals going into my meat animals so parasite resistance comes next.  Last but not least milk is becoming a quality I desire. I want a supply of milk to drink and make cheeses, so my breeds of choice have now become Katadin and Friesian.  Katadin shed their wool, grow quickly, have multiple births, great parasite resistance and mother well.  They combine well with the friesian who have large udders as well as multiple births good meat and mothering.  They don't shed their wool but since it is of good quality i'll deal with the shearing.  
  As you can see, knowing what you want from your farm animals is one of the most important steps in choosing a breed.