# Katahdin Sheep-Newbie Question



## tcmers (Apr 20, 2011)

Hi everyone. We're planning on adding a small flock of sheep to our homestead, mainly for meat purposes for our family. We don't want anything that needs to be sheered, so we are looking at hair sheep breeds. We were considering Soay, but are also considering katahdin because of their larger body size. Our question: Do any of you run your Katahdin rams with the ewes year round? (Wild flock type management) We've talked to a couple of Soay breeders that use this method succesfully, but haven't found anyone doing it with Katahdins. Thanks!


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## Bearfootfarm (Jul 13, 2006)

It could be done, but it's usually far easier to plan your lambing times . If you have random pregnancies and weanings, you end up with a flock that has different nutritional requirements.

I much prefer to breed and raise them in groups when I want rather than on their schedules

If you're considering Katahdins due to body size, you may want to look at Dorpers also since they are similar in size.

Dorpers are often crossed with Katahdins to add muscle


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## PNP Katahdins (Oct 28, 2008)

What Bearfoot said, except we have Katahdins and commercial wool sheep. No Dorpers. More Kats and fewer woollies every year, yay!

We want to know when the lambs are due, not just randomly throughout the year. Wild flocks like the original Soays may tend to be pretty seasonal and only lamb in the spring when the forage is coming in. Katahdins can breed year-round. I don't want to have to deal with saving popsicle lambs as they're called.

Also our rams have their own pasture when they're not with the girls. I feel safer that way. If you only have one ram, keep a wether each year for a ram buddy. Butcher the buddy when the next wether is old enough to take over.

There are some pretty big and muscular Katahdins available, but they eat a lot more than the moderate-sized ones, which we prefer.

Enjoy your sheep when you get them! They don't kick like cows or break your foot if it gets stepped on, bite like hogs, or escape like goats.

Peg


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## littlebitfarm (Mar 21, 2005)

I run my ram with my flock all year round. Only downside is not knowing when lambs are due. Saves me a bunch of work trying to tend to a locked up ram.

Kathie


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

with our Barbado sheep back in KS we left the ram or rams in the flock all year, for the most part we got three lambings out of every two years or so, generally one in the spring and then later in good years one in the fall, all the ewes tended to cycle around the same time as they had all been togather for their whole life basicaly, you can normally see the signs when they are getting ready,


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## lasergrl (Nov 24, 2007)

Well, soays lamb around april so you could plan your lambing quite easily. They are seasonal breeders. I am crossing soay and kat for commercial purposes. The soay are the BEST mother.


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## tcmers (Apr 20, 2011)

lasergrl said:


> Well, soays lamb around april so you could plan your lambing quite easily. They are seasonal breeders. I am crossing soay and kat for commercial purposes. The soay are the BEST mother.


Thanks for the feedback everyone. We have been leaning towards Soay, but thought we'd explore our options. Finishing up fencing and shelter, so it will be a month or so before we are ready to do anything. We've found it difficult to find Soay in the midwest. We've found some 8-10 hours from us, but are still looking and hope to find some closer to home.


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## KZwinensheep (Mar 24, 2011)

At the advice of my supplier, I keep my katahdin ram and buddy in a separate pasture than the ewes. I was told the bigger issue is the ram will badger the ewes incesssantly--like roosters that tear the back feathers off hens, if left together all the time.

Any comments on that as a critical factor for keeping separate pastures, and separate fencing, and separate LGDs, and separate water supply, and separate mangers ......


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## ONG2 (Sep 22, 2010)

We run the ABB ram with the ewe's year round. If a ewe needs a 2-3 month break to regain condition we'll put her in with the lambs till she is ready for Mr. Right. One of the advantages of doing it this way is that not all the ewes need serviced within a short period of time, so the ram's sperm count is higher per breeding.


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## Spaghetti (Aug 20, 2015)

We have a flock of 13 now, we started with a mama, her boy and a girl 5 years ago, we leave them all together all year and rotate them between two large pastures, we just butchered the original ram and two others last year and have sold several in between time. So, we keep them all together and breed them back and they all lamb within two weeks of each other in February and so far we have only lost three at birth. We had to hand raise two which the mothers had rejected for no apparent reason to us. We do nothing but provide them water, shelter, and supplement with hay in the winter months.
Our neighbor was just over today and told us we should not keep a ram for more than three years, is there any truth to that?


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## ohiogoatgirl (Aug 27, 2010)

the biggest reason to not keep a ram for many years is if you are keeping his daughters/sisters you want to watch that you aren't breeding closer than you may want to. I would say this usually isn't an issue because you would want to keep only the best ewes going forward. but you will have to watch because any bad traits will be doubling up as well as the good traits so heavy culling would be necessary.


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## crittermomma (Sep 26, 2013)

I kept my ram with my girls all winter so I only had to use one electric bucket for water. I pulled the ram out about a month before the girls were due to lamb. 

I also agree with ohiogoatgirl - I bred one of my ram's daughters back to him - she lambed two ram lambs that seems healthy enough, but both wound up dying. I will never breed that way again.


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