Katahdin Sheep

Here are some pictures of my Katahdin lambs this year. Most of these boys are going in for slaughter in a couple weeks, but some nice ewe lambs we kept and purchased in this bunch as well. We are almost doubling our flock this year, these are such great sheep!
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Olivia our last born ewe lamb, keeping as a replacement
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My daughter's replacement ewe lamb, Gracie.
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Jasmine, I am excited about this girl, she is adding to my registered flock and finally a black girl for me!
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Carli, she is turning out to be a gorgeous dark brown girl, still waiting to see how she sheds out next year as she is a bit fuzzy for my liking right now.
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Ellen, she is another one going into my registered flock, and another black girl! Hoping she sheds out next year better as well.
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Marla, another one of mine that will be going into my commercial flock, looking for big things from this girl.
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Candy (along the fence) she is purchased by my oldest to start her own registered flock, she is very excited about this little ewe lamb!
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Bailey, she is a nice carmel ewe lamb, going into my registered flock, purchased from the same breeder as my daughter's sheep.
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The group that greets us at the gate every time we go out to see them.
Such personable little guys.

Ok now you have me interested in what colors will come out in your next lambing. Are you using a dark or light color ram? Personally I like the color of Carli. Id like to get an unrelated ram with that color type and a clean coat.

This year we have 3 rams we will be using.
Spot, the registered black boy that throughs nice size lambs, and threw 72% black lambs.
Big black, the non registered black boy, his lambs start smaller but end up a nice size, through a lot of black as well.
Then our new ram, Buck, he is a registered brown boy (almost a buckskin coloring, we will see what he throughs for coloring.

Carli will be going with Big Black for breeding this year, so hoping for some dark lambs from her.

Nice looking Lambs
Have to ask is the Taste different with the Hair Sheep compared to the Wool Sheep?
Am Thinking about putting one in the freezer this fall and just wondering

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Thanks Tara
I Love lamb also just was not sure if it would have a mutton taste as Darwin is not big on mutton (he wont eat if it has mutton taste) dont bother me tho.
I will let you all know how I like it or I might just look for some Katahdin and try that with him before we put one in the freezer
Thanks again

Errg! I might have to break down and try a taste, dont know if I can stomach that much evil though, maybe, I know I should but...yu know, theyre just evil them little lambs.

Im curious too, just where the blanketing comes from, the rams or the ewes. You dont have it near as bad as mine do, how do you select for better coats?

Katahdin lamb tastes awesome!!!
We have raised this breed for over 6 years now, sold lambs to my husband's side of the family, but as we increase out flock more and more lambs need to find homes...We tell people what the lamb "should taste like" but have never tried it ourselves, until just recently.
Cbrookkelly let us holiday there this year and they treated us to a taste of quality katahdin lamb (might have even been dorper now to think of it) but anyways we had lamb chops, BBQ'ed very nicely by her hubby and my gosh they were good.
So then we come home, and last week we cooked up some chops I had stashed away in the freezer from 2 years ago that we always hesitated to try, but they were very good. Same thing, BBQ on low, a bit of garlic spices and some pepper and they were awesome.
Appway these lambs taste very mild, I have tasted wooly lamb before and it was very strong compared to this taste. We have never done mutton, we are going to butcher this 6 year old ewe with bad feet this fall and then we will see how that tastes, if too strong she will be used for dog food, if not then we will package it nicely for ourselves, and have the knowledge on if we can slaughter older animals and still enjoy the taste.


Rennegaide as for the blankets. I select my replacements based on 3 things, good feet as youngsters, good growth rates, and shedding. If my ewe lambs have not shed out completely by the time they are 5 months old I usually do not keep them, but if they have great growth, great feet and are a from a good line of shedders then I will keep them till they are 1 1/2 (usually the time they are having their first lambs and the summer of shedding), if they shed well they stay. Not all lambs will shed out completley their first summer, but if they do not shed anything it could mean they are hard shedding or they will not shed out and keep that back blanket all year, something I do not like to see in my ewes. If they do not shed completely their yearling summer then they will never shed completely. Again it all depends on what you select for, if you just want some large meat lambs come fall then select for your largest fastest growing ewe lambs, if you are wanting replacement ewes then definately coat selection is key for nice looking ewes that need no extra maintenance.
Another thing I learned this year is to select for dark hooves, they tend to wear better so less trimming needed on them. We just trimmed our older ewes today and the 2 that have lighter brown hooves were by far the worst feet to trim up, they had very long toes, where as the darker hooves were well worn for the most part.

What a lovely flock you have there, Hidden. I showed the pics to my girls and we all agree that if we were ever to venture into sheep this would be the breed for us. Just love the colors and they are built so much more graceful than the "ordinary" sheep we are used to seeing around here. Especially your Carli...she looks almost like a deer! So pretty!

Gee, you guys are making remember all the lamb I used to eat. We really need to get a few here. We have a tough time keeping them alive long enought to eat them.....
I love lamb, actually I prefer hogget, but that comes from 10 years in Aussie. Most stuff in the stores there is hogget and you see more lamb than pork in the supermarkets. Weird hey? I miss having lamb every week. Nothing nicer in the winter than a lamb roast with garlic and rosemary!
Now I have to go out and buy and expensive leg roast, thanks alot guys.

Joan I have a friend about to send her lambs to be processed. If you're interested I can put you in touch. You, or anyone in the vicinity.

farmchiq wrote:Joan I have a friend about to send her lambs to be processed. If you're interested I can put you in touch. You, or anyone in the vicinity.

Yes please, email or pm or something. That would be great.

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I have that book on loan from Sue, It is a good read and lots of useful information.
Those are good selection tips too Jayme, thanks, Ill be looking for these things now too.