# hair and wool sheep crossbred



## wwubben (Oct 13, 2004)

Does anyone cross their hair ewes with wool rams?I am considering this but would like more information on it.The pure hair lambs take a cut in price around here.Thanks.


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## KimTN (Jan 16, 2007)

I did it a few times. They turn out with wool. Not very good wool though.


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## PNP Katahdins (Oct 28, 2008)

We have bred some of our lower-quality Katahdin ewes using our wool meat rams as terminal sires. That means all the lambs get sold for meat and none are retained or sold for breeding. The fleece quality doesn't matter. They grow faster and bigger but eat more of course.

Where are you in Iowa? There are a lot of Katahdins and Dorpers all around the state. We were able to find a sale barn in Fennimore WI that is happy to take our Katahdin wethers and lower-quality ewe lambs that I don't want bred. The buyers are looking for lambs in the 80-pound range that will be killed the next day. No difference in price we get for hair or wool lambs. Cull hair and wool ewe prices have also been very good there.

Yes we could drylot and feed these lambs out to get more, but that would take more feed and labor, plus bigger lambs are harder to weigh and load up in our system.

So I am trying to say a different buyer might do better for you. Fennimore was at least the fourth place we tried. We are gradually selling out the wool sheep and will be all-Katahdin in a year or two. They pencil out better for us. Ours all have papers (purebred or percentage) and are scrapie tested. The herding and breeding-stock people like that, also the variety of colors we have.

Peg


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## wwubben (Oct 13, 2004)

I am in north central Iowa in winnebago county.Thanks for the info.


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## wendle (Feb 22, 2006)

I have crossed some border Cheviots with Katahdins and still have some of the ewes. About 30-50 percent would shed their wool, some of those would retain a bit on the back. Those that kept their wool, with the cheviot cross were very hard to shear because of the thickness of the wool and lack of lanolin. The BFL crossed with a hair sheep is very easy to shear since they don't have the thick wool. They have been nice producing ewes and the lambs grow well. They are hardier than the Katahdins and the Cheviots.


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## Looking4ewes (Apr 30, 2006)

Because my flock is fairly new and I've been on track to grow it larger, I have crossed a wool ram over Dorper/Kat ewes, and I have also crossed a Kat ram over some North Country Cheviot ewes. The NCC/Kat seems to shed out but the Dorset/Dorpers do not. I have bred the progeny of both and the lambs out of the NCC X's are very nice and big. The Dorset/DorperX's tend to be a bit smaller, but produced twins upon the first breeding, either as ewe lambs, or as yearlings. 

I am now in a quandry: I am leaning towards building a prolific wool flock that can finish on grass, as I have acquire rams with Finn/Ile de France/Romanov bloodlines, but what to do with the hairs and hair cross ewes? I also have a handfull of pure NCC ewes that don't fit the program of a smaller, moderately-sized ewe. The dozen or so Dorper/Kats that I have are nice producers and easy keepers, but produce smaller lambs. The NCC ewes are too large for me to handle easily, yet produce the largest lambs, though many singled upon their first breeding. And then, also, I have all these yearling hair/wool crosses, some which have not even had their first breeding. Since I am retaining about 30 of this year's ewe lambs, I need to select which adults ewes get sold. Pity, since my oldest ewes are only 3 years old and in prime condition.

So, who stays and who goes? Your thoughts are welcome.


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## Slev (Nov 29, 2003)

Looking4ewes said:


> .....So, who stays and who goes? Your thoughts are welcome.


Well, what worked great for Wendel and myself was when I had good ewes/ewe lambs but maxed out, we traded 3 of her male lambs for 2 of my ewe lambs. This allowed her to grow her flock, and get more for her males than she would have at the sale barn. And, instead of seeing good breeding females go for butcher, I was able to get them to her, and ended up with a little more meat to sell or for the freezer. It really worked out great for both of us I think. See if you can find a situation like that..?


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