Katahdin Sheep A Versatile Breed for Pasture and Silvopasture

Many farmers are becoming enthralled with this breed for parasite resistance, hardiness, versatility, and willingness to consume a wide arrange of pasture plants and even woody browse. This session will feature several farmers speaking on their experience with Katahdin sheep and recommendations for starting your own flock successfully. Panelists include Steve Gabriel, farmer and consultant with Wellspring Forest Farm and author of SILVOPASTURE, and Alex Caskey of Barred Owl Brook Farm.
Originally aired on April 10, 2023

[@robertsweet5970]

Katahdins are awesome. I have a couple of ewes that are 7yrs old. For last 2 years one ewe went from having twins to having triplets. The other ewe started having singles at 5 years old and this year she had twins. They are parasite resistant and do not flock as much as some other sheep i find. Meat is awesome.

[@kathleensanderson3082]

Had to chuckle at the comment near the end about how cute Shetland sheep are. They *are* cute, but they can also jump fences just about as well as a goat! We had neighbors, when we lived in New Hampshire, who were raising purebred Merino sheep and purebred Shetlands. The Merino rams stayed inside their fences; the Shetland rams -- even though they were quite a bit smaller -- readily jumped fences and bred whatever ewes were in season. Thankfully, it was easy to tell the cross-bred lambs apart from purebred Merino lambs. Unthankfully, the cross-bred lambs basically had worthless wool (full of kemp), and were good only for putting in the freezer. I'm sure our neighbors lost quite a bit of money until they got their fences raised to hold the Shetland rams.

[@bradotto7876]

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[@bradotto7876]

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