Katahadin Sheep Questions

[aggieterpkatie]

Thanks for that information. I am presuming they are gaining on grazing grasses. If you continue feeding them after the 6 months, do they continue to gain MEAT? We had some Dorset lamb crosses once and they were topped out about 110, any more gain after was just fat. Breeder had warned us not to keep them longer, waste of time. However those smaller lambs were perfect size for small kid to show at the Fair.

Just asking, because to me 120 is a smaller lamb to be sending in for processing, not as much return in meat. We sold both our little ones at the Fair Auction!

Again, thanks. Always interesting to learn stuff on other breeds.

After a certain point it is fat gain I'm sure. And your daughter raises Suffolks, right? They're framey and heavy, but how much of that extra weight is extra bone mass? I'd be curious to see the resulting lbs of lamb from a hair sheep vs. a club lamb. I used to raise hamps and really loved the breed, but my thoughts have changed now. If I was going to raise a meat lamb for myself (which I'm doing now with a Romney), I wouldn't choose a hamp, suffolk, or modern shrop because they're just too framey for my tastes and I don't know that they'd yield the same amount of meat to bone ratio. Plus, those types of breeds typically require more input in the form of concentrated feeds. I sure do miss my pretty blackfaces though. It was hard to get used to other breeds. And I'm still not ready to get hair sheep yet.