# Need Help with Breeds



## djtravis (Nov 10, 2011)

Hi all,

My wife and I are looking to add some wool sheep to our micro flock of Katahdins, which we've had for about two years now. We originally bought Katahdins because they didn't require shearing and were said to be quite hardy. We didn't have any prior experience with raising livestock, so we thought they would be a good breed to start with. The process has been very educational and we're now at the point that we have a pretty stable sheep "setup" for our farm in terms of fencing, pasture rotation, etc.

My wife wants to add a few wool sheep to the flock. The primary purpose for our sheep is not wool, meat, or milk, but simply as maintenance within an orchard we've planted, so that gives us a lot of flexibility in breed selection. The wool would be for hobby/experimentation.

Unfortunately, ease of care is a big consideration. For me this means an animal that can thrive on rough pasture, and a small-framed breed that is easy to physically manage when drenching, shearing, etc.

My problem is that all of the smaller breeds I've been looking at (Icelandic, Shetland, Black Welsh Mountain), all of them appear to have a poor flocking instinct. The truth is that I don't know how big of a problem this would be for us. We use food to move sheep around. My main concern is that a sheep with a poor flocking instinct might not do so well in the type of smaller electronet enclosures we use. Then again, it might not matter at all.

Anyway, my question is: what would you all be looking at in my situation?

Thanks in advance for any advice.

David Travis
Ashe Co., North Carolina


----------



## aggieterpkatie (Nov 10, 2011)

I personally love Romneys.  They're easy keepers and docile.  If you do some research on them I bet you'll like them too.  Their wool is great for handspinners and felting and other uses.


----------



## RustyDHart (Nov 10, 2011)

Scottish Blackface.....
	

	
	
		
		

		
			





         Medium size breed.......forage well.......great mothers......double coated, long wool........Winter hardy......Both sexes are horned......seasonal breeders......   Check out the Scottish Blackface thread.....   Thanks for looking,   Rusty


----------



## Royd Wood (Nov 10, 2011)

Both of the above are RARE HERITAGE BREEDS so you would be contributing to help preserve these very valuable sheep
We have the Romneys here and agree with agg plus they are very resistant to footrot & worms


----------



## SheepGirl (Nov 10, 2011)

I have heard that Babydoll Southdowns are commonly used in vineyards, and I read an article in sheep! Magazine where this Christmas tree farm was using Shropshires to control weeds.

If you want excellent or good foragers, that are the size of your Katahdins or smaller, I would go for Barbados Blackbelly, Black Welsh Mountain, California Red, Cheviots, Clun Forest, Cheviots, Cormos, Delaine Merino, Gulf Coast Native, Icelandic, Jacob, Karakul, Navajo-Churro, Perendale, Romanov, Southdowns, St. Croix, Scottish Blackface, Shetland, or Tunis.

Click here to go to the Sheep Industry's Directory of Sheep Breeds.


----------



## finns&fjords (Nov 27, 2011)

Have you considered Finn sheep? They're a calm and friendly breed. Mine are very bucket (grain) oriented and will follow me anywhere if I have one in my hand. They eat brush and grass both, will nibble the blackberry vines before grass, which is a plus for our property. They're small in stature as well and I have no problem trimming feet or worming by myself. They are also quite prolific; lambing with litters of 3-5 is common. Because of this they do need extra supplementation in the form of alfalfa and/or grain, from midway in pregnancy and continuing while nursing. With good feed they can usually raise up to 4 lambs w/o supplementing the lambs. you can learn more about the breed on the Finnsheep Breeders Association website. Though I've not had hundreds of sheep in my lifetime, I have had a variety and the Finns are my favorite. Oh and their wool is topnotch for felting.


----------



## finns&fjords (Nov 27, 2011)

Here's a couple pics of Finns. 

Hope this works. The white one on the left is not a Finn.


----------



## TheSheepGirl (Nov 29, 2011)

I am partial to my Shetlands for spinning. They are calm and easy to handle. They also produce an abundance of wool and their small size makes them easy to shear yourself. they also are very similar to kats in their dietary needs.


----------



## Sheepdog (Jan 15, 2012)

We had Romneys when I was young. My mother spun a lot of wool, so chose this particular breed. We also had Border Leicester, but I always prefered the Romneys but I am sure there are many other great wool breeds out there. Personally I would stay away from Merinos. They are very popular wool sheep in Australia and when we lived there our neighbours had a few thousand head of them.... not the easiest to gather and often referred to as the most stupid breed of sheep around.... and I didn't say that, a lot of the sheep graziers say that and they own them and make a living out of their wool. But of course they have their advantages or they would not be so popular in Australia. So if I ever had wool sheep for spinning (unfortunately I did not inherit my mother's talent of spinning, knitting etc and I don't have the patience to learn LOL), I would have Romneys. They make for the cutest lambs too and ours seemed to be very hardy, but we only had a small flock of about 30  head.


----------

