New Poster

[KatahdinsRock]

New Member and new to Katahdins. We got ours July of 2021 and are loving having them. Working on evolving the structure of our pasture so that we can rotational graze the whole property without worry from predators. We are working to make our farm self sustainable. This year we added solar to the farm and we will be adding electric vehicles later in the next few years. We have chickens and raise turkeys and now have sheep for meat and maybe milk in the future. We will be eating babies and also using them as lawn mowers that are more eco friendly than the gas powered versions. We are hoping to add pigs in the next few years and I have seen micro beef and am very interested in raising cow/beef for milk and meat if possible. We don't have a ton of room but are working towards having everything we need so that we could survive without having to get food outside of the property. We have fruit trees (apple, blueberry, blackberry, raspberry, cherry, pear, apricot, peach,plum, and mullberry) We added a few nut trees and have gardens both inside and outside for vegetables. Here are pictures of our crew including our newest members who still need names (born yesterday).

For some reason it won't allow me to upload pictures so here is a link to pictures of my sheep for your viewing pleasure.

The Sheep - Google Drive

drive.google.com

 

[Baymule]

Welcome to the forum from east Texas! If you don’t have your location on your avatar, please do so. I can’t tell when using my cell phone. Location matters when giving advice.

I raise Katahdin sheep too. Love them! On 8 acres at the moment, but have sold the farm and moving to a rent house on 2 acres while I look around.

How many acres do y’all have?

 

[KatahdinsRock]

Welcome to the forum from east Texas! If you don’t have your location on your avatar, please do so. I can’t tell when using my cell phone. Location matters when giving advice.

I raise Katahdin sheep too. Love them! On 8 acres at the moment, but have sold the farm and moving to a rent house on 2 acres while I look around.

How many acres do y’all have?

That's what we have is 2 acres with chickens a horse and sheep currently plus 6 dogs lol. I am in Vermont I'll add it to my profile still working on getting it updated.

 

[Cecilia's-herd]

I love that tiny little black baby!! Very cute.

 

[KatahdinsRock]

I love that tiny little black baby!! Very cute.

We have been calling him Little Bit cause he was a little bit cold and a little bit slow to get the eating thing and a little tinier than his brother lol.

 

[Cecilia's-herd]

We have been calling him Little Bit cause he was a little bit cold and a little bit slow to get the eating thing and a little tinier than his brother lol.

I think that is perfect.

 

[KatahdinsRock]

I think that is perfect.

That's what I was thinking too. The bigger one is kind of like a bulldozer big and burley but he is also sweet like Ferdinand the bull. I don't want to get too attached though because these guys are going to be in our freezer at the end of the fall next year. Unless the large whether we have currently keeps being rotten to the girls then he will go and one of these will stay.

 

[Baymule]

I castrated all the boys and named them Dinner. Now I just take them to auction.

2 acres may not be enough to carry the different animals you want to have, especially if you keep breeding stock. You will have a better outcome if you concentrate on just a few species.

Keeping feeder pigs for 6 months and taking to slaughter would work, that's what I did.

 

[KatahdinsRock]

I castrated all the boys and named them Dinner. Now I just take them to auction.

2 acres may not be enough to carry the different animals you want to have, especially if you keep breeding stock. You will have a better outcome if you concentrate on just a few species.

Keeping feeder pigs for 6 months and taking to slaughter would work, that's what I did.

Yeah only keeping the sheep and one horse for over the winter as well as layer chickens (10-15) all eating chickens go in the freezer and boy sheep other than one ram and a wether to keep him company. I have 4 girls will be adding one more this upcoming fall and will have two boys and that will be my only breeding stock. Will be banding the boys once I am sure they are doing okay or leaving them intact and eating them that way (with Katahdins you don't have to band the boys the meat still tastes good).

 

[KatahdinsRock]

My main goal with the sheep is to have them "mow" my property since we now have solar panels up and it's a pain to mow around them. But I do love lamb so definitely ready to put a few in my freezer to eat and the girls that we lamb each year can either replace their momma's or be sold to help with the cost of feed for the winter months since we go from September to March usually before the grass starts growing again.