We have Katahdin Hair sheep (no wool and no shearing) and prefer the various colors (black, brown, tan, and red) over an all white flock likes these from a friend's website.
Our trainer's flock is mostly Katahdin and some crosses. Mostly white, but a few lovely dark brown/black girls, and one very ill tempered wether who is white with large red spots.
That one tried to head-butt Buddy the other day...got himself a nip on the nose for his actions.
BCSnob wrote: We have Katahdin Hair sheep (no wool and no shearing) and prefer the various colors (black, brown, tan, and red)
For those who are interested here is a website listing >200 sheep breeds. Breeds of Livestock: sheep
That website is really interesting. It says the Katahdin breed is highly fertile. I would say so! Are the hides used for anything or is this breed mainly for meat? And they give your dogs a job, I imagine. Also wondering if the small triplets and quads catch up in size or if they stay smaller throughout their lives.
BCSnob wrote: We have Katahdin Hair sheep (no wool and no shearing) and prefer the various colors (black, brown, tan, and red) over an all white flock likes these from a friend's website.
What happened to the OP's post, to "What do you you brush your dog with" ??? I don't see sheep mentioned..
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The triplets this year have come out the same size as most of our twins!
Most of the time trimplets are smaller at birth than twins and singles but they catch up in size between 12 months and 24 months. There will be a few that are just small for life. The other thing that can happen is triplets will come out thinner but have a similar frame size as a bulkier twin or single.
The hides from other hair sheep breeds (like Dorper) have been used for leather products but not so much Katahdin which is strictly a meat breed.
BTW if you look at the header on this website you'll see they also have lists of other farm species: cattle, goats, horses, swine, other (buffalo, donkey, camel, llama, reindeer, yak, poultry).
Dogs with Jobs
Right now we are not allowing our flock to graze our larger fields; the fencing is not containing them. We don't want ewes lambing two fields away from the barn where we keep them overnight. Easier for Sam to protect the lambs in the barnyard; 1st time mothers cannot walk to far away from their lamb(s); 1st born lambs cannot wander as far away while mom is delivering siblings.
When we start turning them out onto the large fields I will have to let Peg and Nell (mother/daughter) learn how to work together to bring in the flock. Up until now we have only worked one of our dogs at a time; they have not learned how to work as a team. Ewes with lambs don't really want to move and the lambs don't always try to keep up. When the flock with lambs is spread across a large field one dog has difficulty moving the entire flock. The dog can get one side of the flock moving but when it goes to work the other side of the field to move those sheep the first side stops moving. This means the dog is continually running from one side of the field and then back to the other; very hard work when the field is 15 acres. It may take a dog 15-20min of continually running from one side to the other to gather off our 15 acre field.
The first few times I've worked both dogs on our flock, the flock was moving readily (only needed 1 dog for the job) and often what happened was one dog took over working the entire flock. I figure when the job requires 2 dogs, they will learn to work together.
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