good breeds for pastured organic?

[bibliophile birds]

after many years of thinking i wanted nothing to do with the family farming business, i've finally realized that it's what i love... i just needed to find my own niche, so to say. that niche is organics. i've finally convinced my family to experiment with organics and now have until spring to come up with some really great ideas.

we've always run pastured, grass-fed beef cattle, but for this i want to diversify and do something new and interesting. i'm looking for something resilient and hardy in our Southern heat and humidity. i'm also particularly interested in heritage breeds and the ALBC endangered breeds[.url]. i'm not particularly interested in collecting wool, but it's always an option.

so, i am just wondering if anyone has experience in this area and could suggest some breeds for me to look into. i'm doing some research, but going into this without a direction is quite difficult.

 

[houndit]

I would Recommend the Barbado or Barbados. They are very similar. We have some. They are pasture only on or place. They have done really well. They are a hair sheep so they shed naturally and do not have to be shorn.

 

[Lalaith]

I have a small flock of organically raised Katahdins. They are incredibly hardy and low-maintenance, even in our cold Canadian climate. They are easy lambers and excellent mothers and pretty- they come in every colour of the rainbow. Their meat is lean and very mild. They are easy to handle and pretty smart (for a sheep).

Have fun choosing! There are so many out there that do well at pasture. Oh- I've heard great things about Icelandics too, and you can keep their shed wool fibres for spinning.

 

[patandchickens]

You will need to think about what your priorities are.

If you want to go organic, IMO the biggest priority should probably be inborn parasite resistance. Sheep and goats are about the wormiest (and most severely affected BY their worms) critters on a farm. Parasites are one of the very biggest management problems with any sheep raising and a BIG challenge for organic production because for organic you can't use chemical wormers (well you can but then you can't sell those sheeps' meat as organic).

As far as I know, the most parasite-resistant breeds (mostly landrace type things such as St Croix, Gulf Coast Native, etc) do not necessarily have the most commercially-desirable carcasses, in terms of amount and distribution of meat. The most commercial type carcasses usually come from wool sheep (for which you have to figure in the costs of shearing) and mostly from wool sheep that have been bred for carcass and growth rate *at the expense of* parasite resistance... but many of those also don't do well on just pasture, without grain (for raising market lambs).

I would suggest two things: a) do a buncha googling, see what breeds other organic lamb producers are using in your region (I believe that up here Katahdins are popular for grass-fed lamb); and b) check out the breed associations for the "likeliest suspects", maybe even email or call them and explain you're looking for a parasite resistant breed for organic lamb production and how would their breed serve your needs?

There are a bizillion different sheep breeds, so get reading

Good luck, have fun,

Pat

 

[Lalaith]

++ what Patandchickens said.

Katahdins are thought to be fairly resistant to internal parasites and their shedding coats prevent nasty things like fly strike.