purplequeenvt's 2014 Lambing Thread

[happy acres]

Is that good? About how old do you think they are?

 

[purplequeenvt]

Katahdins are a hair sheep so there will be no tail docking or shearing required. Age is hard to determine from the picture, but I'd guess around 3 months.

 

[happy acres]

A hair sheep? But I wanted the wool for spinning. If they are bred to woolly rams, will the offspring be one or the other, or somewhere in between?

 

[happy acres]

Ok, did some research. Found out about my lambs. Guess I'll be raising meaties instead of woolies.

 

[purplequeenvt]

My only personal experience with hair sheep was a Dorper/Border Leicester ram that we bought. He had wool, but it was very short and not very usable. He was bred to Border Leicesters, BL/Romney, Friesians, and Friesian/Shetland crosses. All had wool, but again, not very nice. One of his daughters that we kept, sheds all the wool on her neck and belly, but keeps the rest.

If you are hoping for wool sheep, I'd recommend getting something with nice wool sheep instead of breeding these two with a wool breed and hoping for semi-usable wool.