How many are currently raising hair breeds of sheep?

[Beekissed]

Just trying to gather some information, if I could:

How many are utilizing these breeds?

Why did you choose them?

What are you using them for(lawn mowers, meat production, etc)?

How long have you been raising them?

What are your results(as compared to maybe other types you've raised)?

If not currently raising them: How many are curious about hair sheep?

 

[Hillsvale]

I have katahdin ewe and ram and a katahdin dorper cross... among others.

I processed a single (as in single lamb) katahdin/dorper cross at 6 months... he was massive... dressed at 46 pounds, I also processed a 8 month old horned dorset crossed (also a single) with suffolk (I believe)... he was almost half the size dressed at 28 pounds. My pure katahdin ram lamb is slowly catching up...

I had a jacob lamb last year... he was pretty yummy too!

Well I just really like lamb! lol

We let the sheep into the main yard in the summer several days a week... didn't mow once!

We've been doing sheep and goats for 2 years.

 

[bonbean01]

We have katahdin dorper cross sheep and we chose them because we raise them for meat and have no interest in wool, nor shearing sheep. They are hardy in cold and hot weather, very sweet and gentle natured and are more resistant to internal parasites than the wool breeds. They are easy keepers (right now we are slowly decreasing their feed since they are all looking rather portly and we don't want fat ewes when lambing time comes since that is supposed to cause problems.) We have only a handful ... 4 ewes and 1 ram and may add another ewe now that we have more pasture fenced.

 

[ThreeBoysChicks]

Breed: Katahdin
Sex: One ewe and One whether
Why: Wanted to add sheep, but did not want to be bothered with sheering and heard that Katahdins were more hardy.
Purpose: Lawn mowers / Pets.

I run 2 Horses, 4 goats and 2 sheep together. It is a great mix. Between the group, they keep the field looking very neat and tiddy.

 

[77Herford]

Breed: Katahdin
Sex: One ewe and One whether
Why: Wanted to add sheep, but did not want to be bothered with sheering and heard that Katahdins were more hardy.
Purpose: Lawn mowers / Pets.

I run 2 Horses, 4 goats and 2 sheep together. It is a great mix. Between the group, they keep the field looking very neat and tiddy.

40 Katahdin and 10 Katahdin/BF Dorper crosses. 3 BF Dorper Rams
Didn't want wool and they are for meat.

 

[Queen Mum]

One Black Bellied Hair Sheep. He's a Ram. He's a pet. We got him because he rammed people. He doesn't do that anymore because it took three times of stepping aside and throwing him and he just got up, shook himself off and then never did it again. He's a dear sweet elderly fellow now, but he's been around for a LONG, LONG time. He's 13 + years old. I wish we had more like him. A doe or two.

 

[Beekissed]

Do any of you have difficulty finding any publications that feature care and husbandry of hair breeds?

 

[Beekissed]

Here is a website you may all be interested in....VERY informative and comprehensive about many things to do with the different breeds of hair sheep, how they do against wool breeds and even against Boer goats on weaning wts and carcass, how the different hair breeds compare in different areas on feed conversion, etc.

From everything I've read here and other places, it seems that Katahdins finish out the best on average for just about every trial...even if it is only marginally better than the other hair breeds at times.

http://sheepandgoat.com/HairSheepWorkshop/index.html

 

[ShadyAcres]

I live about 1 hr south of Nash, TN. Originally my husband and I ran a few cattle on our 70 acre farm. When we sold out of cattle we looked at alternative livestock as we were getting older, kids gone, we wanted something easier to handle. We originally thought about goats, but would have to do too much fencing. A lot of research piqued our interest in hair sheep and we visited 2 semi local farms one registered Katahdin, one registered White Dorper. We like both breeds but couldnt put out the money at that time for registered stock and found another semi local farm with a commercial flock. So in 2005 we purchased 10 bred (by Full Blood White Dorper) ewes, 3 of which were pure (unregistered) Kats, the remaining mixed by varying degrees with White Dorper.

We were hooked.

As far as management issues went, we found little difference in the full Kats versus the almost full Dorpers, other than growth rate on the lambs. The owner of the reg Dorper flock became a good friend and mentor and when he sold out his Pure Breds and went to Full Bloods, we purchased several young bred ewes. We now run a flock of about 50 Pure Bred ewes and always have or use Full Blood rams.

This year my lamb sales coincided with the Easter sale, and I sold most of my ram lambs at 45 60 days old (straight off of mom with no weaning time) and all lambs weighed 45 to 60 lbs except one lamb at 42 lbs (he was a triplet) and a few lambs over 60 lbs.

Previously, we lambed anywhere from Dec to Feb. We lamb in open fields with access to a small open front shed. Once they have lambed, moms and babies are moved to another pasture with access to a barn. In the beginning, I tried to move moms and babies to the barn when weather was bad, but they were happier out side, so now I only move them if one is birthing or just had lambs during extreme weather conditions.

This year, we hosted our first (soon to be annual) stock dog trial Labor Day weekend so ewes were not bred until late Sept. Ewe lambs are either sold as breeding stock or held for replacement. I keep a handful of ram lambs to sell as breeding stock, a few for my freezer and the rest are sold at market. This year we kept most of our ewe lambs as we sold several of the older stock and next year we will also keep most of the ewe lambs as we want our flock size around 75 head.

With flushing the ewes and keeping a ram in close proximity, I average at lowest 169 % lambing rate. This year everyone lambed within 2 weeks, last year in 3. Next lambing season may be longer as I am using a 9 month old ram with my ewes as well as a friends for a total of about 70 ewes. I have 20 ewe lambs that I will breed in Dec.

Ewes - whether bred or open, older or lambs - sell quick. I no longer advertise and have people call often looking for any female they can get. Rams sell slower, but fall is when I get most of my calls for them.

We dont make a lot of money on our sheep as we keep putting so much back into them, but when the vet practice I worked for sold we decided to try to make a go out of it with just the one income. Hopefully they will pay off in the long run.

Our only regrets as far as the sheep business goes, is that we didnt start this sooner!

Visit my web pages:
ShadyAcresSheep.com (farm page) ShadyAcresSDT.com (our Dog Trial) or msrda.org (Mid South Regional Dorper Assoc)

~Paula

 

[Beekissed]

I love these responses, folks! I studied on breeds of sheep for around three years before I decided on a breed, then I studied the breed to see if there was any downsides to the breed I wanted. Originally I was wanting Dorpers or Dorper cross ewes and surveyed a farm that raised them.

The farmer's husbandry techniques didn't fall in line with the methods I intended to use and I found his operation, though neat and orderly on the outside, incredibly filthy and stinky on the inside of the barn/pens. I found that he grained all winter and I was specifically getting hair sheep for their proficiency on grass without the need for supplemental grains.

The next farmer was raising ST. Croix/Katahdin cross sheep and my first view of his farm was disappointing. It looked like he was raising sheep in the middle of a farm dump....I'd never seen so much rusted metal and weeds in my life and so close to the house and barns. But...inside the barn I found sweet smelling, calm, quiet sheep in clean surroundings.

The farmer had raised Suffolk sheep, switched to hair breeds and had initially supplemented with grain like he was used to doing with the Suffolks. He found that his hair sheep didn't exactly thrive on that feed and even showed poor lambing percentages on it. When he switched to mainly grass/hay feed, his lambing was at around 200% and his ewes stayed in better condition, had easier lambings and nursing, less health difficulties all around.

I was hooked! He and I exchanged our ideas on animal husbandry and, though we differed on a few points, we both seemed to learn a few things along the way. I bought sheep from him, and when I needed to move and needed a place for my sheep, I gave the same ewes right back to him. I learned so much along the way and I found that, of all livestock, I love raising these hair breed sheep the most. I never thought I'd love them so much...I love their personalities, the way they smell, their thriftiness on feed, their easy care and the big lambs they finish off.

In the course of that learning, I found that I particularly liked the hardiness, easy shedding, sweetness of temperament, good lambing and mothering and the milkiness of the pure Katahdins and found it to be superior to the SC/Kat cross ewes I had. They also stayed well and fatter on the grass and hay I provided.

I hope to start again one day with sheep and hope to have Katahdins once again.