Sheep production provides proteins with high biological value for human consumption and contributes significantly to the global economy. To ensure the short- and long-term sustainability and competitiveness of sheep production, animal breeding stands as a vital pillar for achieving continuous and cumulative permanent improvements, leading to enhanced productivity and sustainability. Breeding programmes for sheep have matured over the last decades (2000–2023) and are evolving and continuously responding to the current challenges confronting agriculture and food security, aligning with the actual needs of the industry, and social and market demands. While selective breeding initially focused mainly on production traits, it has now been expanded to incorporate a wide range of reproductive, health, product quality and traits that have environmental impact. However, the limited availability of comprehensive records for a substantial number of animals remains a significant constraint for various sheep production systems, particularly in extensive management. For instance, in the UK’s terminal sire breeds, less than 25% of rams sold have performance records (Jones and Haresign, 2020). This emphasises the significance of extension/outreach and transfer activities within the livestock industry, particularly highlighting the importance of pedigree and performance recording, while simultaneously fostering innovation in novel traits. Continuous investment in recording phenotypic information is essential in animal breeding, allowing the widespread adoption of accurate estimated breeding values, and consequently, propagation of superior genetics that lead to genetic progress and improved sheep production efficiency. In this chapter, we undertake a general review of the genetics of the main productive and reproductive traits of meat sheep, as well as considering health traits and emerging traits related to sustainability, such as resilience, feed efficiency and methane emissions.