tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12997259.post9050746148823291088..comments2024-03-14T05:55:13.709-05:00Comments on Farmgirl Fare: Sunday Dose of Cute: How and Why We Added Katahdin Hair Sheep to Our FlockFarmgirl Susanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04851855517852917202noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12997259.post-67469735236715352562017-07-14T08:24:23.843-05:002017-07-14T08:24:23.843-05:00Do you know of anyone who has crossed katahdins wi...Do you know of anyone who has crossed katahdins with babydolls? I love both breeds and was hoping the lambs would end up being shearless. Thanks!Deb Jnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12997259.post-451500770659036492011-04-14T07:44:49.762-05:002011-04-14T07:44:49.762-05:00I enjoyed very much my education this morning abou...I enjoyed very much my education this morning about Katahdin sheep of which I ad never 'herd' of. Also found quite amusing your relating the way you have of naming your new babies every year. You brighten and enlighten my world every day.DeltaJoyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11687492709512590826noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12997259.post-51693940010250944862010-06-29T08:52:19.042-05:002010-06-29T08:52:19.042-05:00Love the the pictures. Love Katahdins!Love the the pictures. Love Katahdins!Bethanyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06805208196728669227noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12997259.post-71843045294825818542010-04-03T12:58:27.905-05:002010-04-03T12:58:27.905-05:00Hi Susan, we are getting our first lambs this spri...Hi Susan, we are getting our first lambs this spring for our grand children to raise for 4-H and then sell at the county fair. We have a couple of pet mini goats and 11 chickens that lay and 4 horses for riding. We also have a large 12 stall barn that no longer is filled with horses and a barn yard but not a lot of pasture maybe three acres that the horses get first dubs on for turn out and grazing time each day other than that they are fed twice a day in the barn. We only have six acres all together. Our pastures are not dence enough to support anything full time and we live in a mountain climate at 7000 ft anyways so our grazing season is only about 5 months...My question is this, is it cost effective to raise and feed sheep to both butcher and shear and how does that work? Who do you sell your fiber too? Do you shear your own how many can live happily in a large barn yard with chickens and goats and access to their stalls? We would also like to get a pet donkey. These small animals are mostly for "Grammy's Barnyard" for our five grand kids two of which live here. But it would be nice to produce something to offse t the cost of feed and teach the kids about money matters. Please tell me you thoughts of how you think it might work for us and how many sheep, what kind,how to get started and so on if you would be so kind. Thank you so much for your time in advance!<br />SusanSusanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07967702487981520503noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12997259.post-43484074943914690992010-03-17T14:11:45.765-05:002010-03-17T14:11:45.765-05:00Reading this made me think of the class I'm ta...Reading this made me think of the class I'm taking at the moment, 'Ecological Agriculture' our professor is a semi-retired dairy sheep farmer. They had a similar problem with worms, mainly because sheep and the worms are so good at building up their resistances to the de-wormers. They actually use almost no 'de-wormers' anymore. My professor is big on using Systems Thinking to figure out problems on the farm, basically mapping out the issue and looking for larger underlying problems. From what he has told us that they started rotating the flock, and specifically putting the lambs on a pasture that had been hayed the year before to allow for the worms to die off. This way the lambs had low to no exposure to worms and stopping the worm cycle. I'm a wannabe sheep farmer so I don't know if you have the same parasites as we do NY. But I thought I'd share :) If you are curious though the professor wrote a short article about how he decided to do it this way.Elisabethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09981852802245567520noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12997259.post-20248435419901245772010-03-16T15:37:04.942-05:002010-03-16T15:37:04.942-05:00Hi Everybody,
So glad you enjoyed this little shee...<b>Hi Everybody,<br />So glad you enjoyed this little sheep breed lesson. And I can see it spawned lots more questions! I'm kinda swamped right now working sheep and getting ready to be off the farm all day and most of the night tomorrow (and some of you know how carried away I get replying to comments), but I'm hoping to have a chance to answer your questions the best I can on Thursday or Friday, so please check back! : )</b><br /><br /><b>Kathryn,</b><br />We do band the tails of the 'wool' lambs, but the Katahdins don't need their tails banded. You can see both short and long tails <a href="http://foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com/2010/01/wednesday-dose-of-cute-man-at-work.html" rel="nofollow"><b>in this post,</b></a> and you can see some banded lamb tails <a href="http://foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com/2008/05/wednesday-daily-dose-of-cute-all-day.html" rel="nofollow"><b>in this post.</b></a><br /><br />For those of you interested in learning more about tail docking, I wrote about it in the comments section of <a href="http://foodiefarmgirl.blogspot.com/2010/01/wednesday-dose-of-cute-man-at-work.html" rel="nofollow"><b>this post.</b></a>Farmgirl Susanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04851855517852917202noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12997259.post-64616227590717788622010-03-16T11:47:47.074-05:002010-03-16T11:47:47.074-05:00I noticed by the picture of the rams that you do n...I noticed by the picture of the rams that you do not remove the long tails of your sheep. We have sheep, but my husband puts rubber bands on the tails of the lambs and they eventually drop off.<br /><br />I love your blog!Kathrynhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09354902609719181002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12997259.post-52584564170126965042010-03-16T10:31:52.195-05:002010-03-16T10:31:52.195-05:00They are all so cute - I would have a hard time ta...They are all so cute - I would have a hard time taking them to the butcher. Someone else would have to do it for me...<br /><br />Interestin about the diatomaceous earth - I wonder if you can feed it safely to horses? I'll have to go google that. Would it also work if you sprinkled it in your pasture? Sounds like a way to maybe keep the fly population down...Laurahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01736592362765508427noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12997259.post-39671144391958845192010-03-15T14:20:24.429-05:002010-03-15T14:20:24.429-05:00I have never seen a Katahdin sheep around here. Th...I have never seen a Katahdin sheep around here. They are really lovely!Weekend Cowgrilhttp://weekendcowgirl.com/noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12997259.post-62723254132919392482010-03-15T14:20:24.430-05:002010-03-15T14:20:24.430-05:00What a great post - very informative, really inter...What a great post - very informative, really interesting! and your lambs and sheep are so beautiful. Love those babies - I really want some sheep now (and don't forget a donkey or two...)<br /><br />Seriously, I do not know how you do everything you do. I am in complete awe!Barbnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12997259.post-6410765440324755312010-03-15T12:31:40.959-05:002010-03-15T12:31:40.959-05:00Echoing Bridgett here-- I'd love to know about...Echoing Bridgett here-- I'd love to know about how hair versus wool works out. Are all sheep either one or the other? Can a mixed-breed sheep have patches of both? Do the textures blend, so maybe a wool that sheds? And do you have any preference if they're going to be meat anyway?<br />Thanks!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12997259.post-91656660566677622572010-03-15T12:01:38.139-05:002010-03-15T12:01:38.139-05:00I really enjoyed this very informative post. I am ...I really enjoyed this very informative post. I am moving to a farm in two weeks, a small hobby type but we are going to have some livestock at some point. My partner is talking about getting this very breed so I was delighted to see you writing about them. I grew up on such a place and my parents had milk cows, hogs, chickens, a large garden, I later had horses...we did what they call 'self-sufficiency' or 'homesteading' nowadays, but it was just 'life' for us...Trishymousehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10448388630980259659noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12997259.post-39610093051011141622010-03-15T12:01:38.138-05:002010-03-15T12:01:38.138-05:00I want to cuddle them. Sigh.I want to cuddle them. Sigh.Katehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01542230897888388433noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12997259.post-76822160622354543162010-03-15T11:36:46.236-05:002010-03-15T11:36:46.236-05:00So...do the katahdin sheep, when they've mixed...So...do the katahdin sheep, when they've mixed with the wool sheep--do the lambs retain the hair or switch over to wool? I'm fascinated. And I'll vouch for garlic as an anti-microbial, just anecdotally...Bridgetthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12843150280542615265noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12997259.post-40878508551605674282010-03-15T10:23:01.414-05:002010-03-15T10:23:01.414-05:00They are cute for sure! However being a hand spin...They are cute for sure! However being a hand spinner, I just can't imagine having sheep without the soft, yummy, spinable fleeces! Not that I don't enjoy a good locker lamb as well...Ninahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07049476969325691637noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12997259.post-35089974576985913222010-03-15T09:30:56.824-05:002010-03-15T09:30:56.824-05:00I'm just wondering.... the katahdin sheep natu...I'm just wondering.... the katahdin sheep naturally shed.... the others -- what would happen if they were not shorn?Joannehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00449859782731413486noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12997259.post-61326329735272852312010-03-15T09:13:33.599-05:002010-03-15T09:13:33.599-05:00angela, we used to carry our sons around like that...angela, we used to carry our sons around like that. I can't imagine it hurts the lambs either. :P<br /><br />I'd love to hear more about your sheep raising. It's part of our long-term goals to move somewhere with land and raise sheep (mostly for meat, some for wool since I'm a knitter). Plus it's just amusing to hear about them!Kellyhttp://www.assortednutz.com/blognoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12997259.post-46800704727719487532010-03-15T05:23:08.543-05:002010-03-15T05:23:08.543-05:00they are so clean and white and I love the white/c...they are so clean and white and I love the white/caramel combination very pleasing on the eye...sheep here tend to look dirty grey once they've stopped being lambs..<br /><br />Doesn't it hurt the lamb to be carried like that?Angelahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05430428908798646588noreply@blogger.com