ReapingMoreWithLess

KatahdinSecrets
By John Kirchhoff
Kirchhoff Katahdins

For many people, mentioning hair sheep evokes either "I wouldn't have anything
else" or a "No way would I have them" response. My wife and I feel there's no "best"
breed, but rather which "breed" best fits your operation.

Breed Helps In Property Development

We both work off farm; therefore time is a commodity in short supply. We feel that
our time must be used where it will improve our operation, rather than maintaining it
status quo. For example, we consider time spent worming, shearing, docking and
trimming hooves as merely maintaining an operation.
If this same time is spent building fence, watering systems, improving lambing or
handling facilities, it's improving an operation. For us, the Katahdin breed fits our
operation and our philosophy quite well.

Katahdin: A True Hair

Breed
Katahdins are one of several hair
breeds, the most common of which
includes Barbado1, Black Belly
Barbados2, St. Croix and Dorper.
While Dorpers are considered a hair
breed, I've found a large number
have quite a bit of wool or curly fibers
in their coat. Many of the Dorper you
see have been crossed with Katahdin
for several reasons.

Forage is making good-paying meat, not wasted on

today's often-slim wool prices.

Breeders often use less-expensive Katahdin ewes to initiate an upgrading program

with registered Dorper as the final goal. Unfortunately, as the percentage of Dorper
increases, more wool is found in their coat and some animals lose some of their
shedding ability. While I'm sure I'll rile a lot of Dorper breeders, I've seen too many
that had been sheared before a sale, which defeats the purpose of a hair animal.
The thickness of a Katahdin's winter coat will vary among individuals, but it needs to
shed completely for an A or AA coat classification, which is the norm. For registered
breeding stock, permanent wooly fibers are a no-no.

Hair-Breed Fallacies
Several myths still surround hair sheep. (We've heard them all.)
Myth number one: They're too small to be of commercial value.
Fact: While it's true that Barbados and St. Croix are small animals (ewes 80-110
pounds), few commercial breeders raise them. Katahdin and Dorper are bred for one
thing only, and that is to produce meat. A Katahdin ewe will average between 140180 pounds, while Dorper ewes will average 160-200 pounds. Dorper lambs have
amazing growth rates when young.
Myth number two: Hair sheep don't bring as much on the slaughter market.
Fact: Eight or ten years ago you could expect a 5-10 cent/pound discount for hair
animals. Anymore (at least in Missouri) it's the carcass quality that sets the price. In
this area, hair sheep often sell higher than wool sheep. More on that subject later.
Myth number three: Since hair sheep don't have a heavy wool coat, they can't take
the cold.
Fact: Katahdins, at least, will thrive from hot, humid Florida to the western provinces
of Canada. Our flock is content to sleep outside in the coldest weather and will have
unmelted snow on their backs like a wool animal.
Myth number four: A ewe's wool will pay her winter feed bill.
Fact: In central Missouri, wool has been a losing proposition for a number of years.
Flock owners with less than 50 animals have a difficult time getting someone to
shear unless they pool their animals with neighbors. In 2001, my friend with Polypay
paid $2 to shear $.50 worth of wool per animal. University of South Dakota research
found it requires 250-300 pounds of dry matter forage to produce each pound of
wool. We prefer using forage to produce lambs rather than wool. Our spring lambs
require 4-5 pounds of dry matter forage to produce each pound of gain.

Feeding
While I can't speak for other hair breeds, Katahdins are tough, hardy animals with
eating habits more like that of a goat.
I've seen Shropshire being used to keep weeds and grass down in Christmas tree
plantations. They were an excellent choice for this as they seldom bothered the pine
trees.
We have eight foot Scotch Pines that look like a girdled palm tree and have seen
them strip an old dried Christmas tree of its needles.
Katahdins will strip the bark from cedars, pines and any deciduous tree that has
smooth, immature bark. They will stand on their hind feet like goats to strip any low
hanging limbs of their leaves. This behavior causes problems with maintaining

desirable trees unless protection is provided.

It's also common to see animals of up to a year old climbing to the top of a big bale
of hay. The desire to climb mandates the use of a bale ring to prevent excessive
waste.

Feed Efficiency vs. Flushing

To properly flush a ewe, she should be on an upward nutritional plane and gaining
weight.
Our grass-fed ewes normally go into the fall with a body score of 4-5, which makes
flushing difficult: Adult Katahdins can maintain themselves on poor quality forage that
had our Romanovs literally skin and bones. (A friend with Polypay and Katahdins
has had the same experience.)
In fall 2000, we grazed our flock on cocklebur and waterhemp that followed an oat
crop. Two weeks later, the ewes hadn't lost any body condition.
By the way, any breed with a true hair coat has an advantage in that cockleburs,
briars, "stick-tights" and so forth don't become entangled. (Grabbing a Romanov
that's been walking through cockleburs is like wrestling with a 130-pound cocklebur.)

Growth Rates
As with any young growing animal, the weight gains of a Katahdin lamb increase as
the protein and digestibility of the forage increases.
At 90 days, we've had NovemberDecember lambs on pasture, hay and
whole grain (corn or milo) average 75
pounds. Our spring lambs on pasture
alone (17-20% protein and 65-72%
digestible organic matter-"DOM") will
average 55-60 pounds. May-June
lambs on pasture alone (10-13%
protein and 60-65% DOM) will average
45 pounds.
The lighter weights are the result of hot
weather reducing forage intake (occurs
with all grazing animals) and lowered
Hair sheep husbandry allows time for permanent farm
improvement, like this low-cost tire waterer (works well,
nutritional quality of cool season
and only costs about $74 apiece).
forages. Generally, hair breeds are
more heat tolerant than wool breeds.
Dorper are known for their fast weight gains as lambs. 80 pounds at 90 days can be
expected.

Gain vs. Latitude

When comparing weights, keep in mind we live in north central Missouri.

In Canada, Katahdins commonly gain well over a pound per day. People in the
Midwest or southern states see this and make a trip to Alberta to purchase a super
ram. A year and many dollars later, they can't understand why the ram's offspring
doesn't grow any faster than the rest of their animals.
This has nothing to do with genetics and everything to do with the latitude in which
the animal lives: Things being equal, our weights will be lower than the weights of
similar Katahdins raised in Canada, but higher than ones raised in Florida.
High latitudes (up north) have a short growing season with long daylight periods and
fast grass growth that is high in protein and low in fiber. Grazing animals put on
weight quickly in preparation for the long winters.
At lower latitudes (down south), summer daylight periods are shorter, the
temperature higher, grass growth is slower and is lower in protein and higher fiber.
Animals don't grow as fast, but don't need to-with milder winters and longer growing
season.
We've found that while genetics play an important role in weight gains, flock
management, parasite control, forage quality and forage availability seem to be
more important when it comes to the bottom line. A common lamb on good pasture
will perform better than "Super Lamb" on poor pasture. The best genetics won't keep
an animal from starving to death.

Typical Markets
Other than a few lambs for Hispanic weddings, we sell our slaughter animals
through the local auction barn. As mentioned earlier, there's no price discount for
Katahdin or Dorper in central Missouri. This may or may not be the case in other
states.
We are fortunate that buyers for the
large ethnic market in St. Louis often
attend sales. Many ethnic groups
want a much different lamb or goat
than has been marketed in the past.

Hair coat doesn't hide body on grass-fed

Katahdins-No groomed fluff on back or butt to veil
poor muscling.

To appeal to ethnic buyers, it often

requires a change in flock management. Bosnians want 60-pound animals while
Muslims often prefer 60-80 pound animals.
A large-framed, late-maturing breed will not have the necessary carcass quality at
these weights, whereas Katahdins or Dorpers will.

Mexicans prefer a larger lamb, and let nothing go to waste. After slaughter, all that's
left is hide, manure and stomach contents.
As a bit of trivia, the majority of cull ewes the U.S. exports go to the Mexico City
area. Libyans prefer old worn out buck goats for their "stronger flavor". Most Muslims
prefer intact ram lambs without tails being docked. It's important to have an animal
that's "pure" or unaltered for sacrifice in observence of many holidays. This is
inconvenient since you must pasture ram lambs separately from ewes to prevent
unplanned pregnancies.
Many Greeks eat lamb for Easter, which is not always the same date as the
traditional Easter.
In years past, 18-30 pound lambs sold well in Chicago for Jewish Passover. This
market presented difficulties such as lambing in the dead of winter, having lambs
large enough (especially when Passover comes early) and pooling with your
neighbors to find enough lambs for a truckload.

Mexican Market
For a number of years there has been a good export market for ewe lambs going to
Mexico. They like large groups of lambs on each farm, prefer solid colors, registered
and must be enrolled in the scrapie program. While we've missed out on export
sales the last several years because of retaining ewes to increase flock numbers,
Mexican buyers will be coming by this spring.
Work with your state's department of agriculture if you're interested in export sales.
They can provide you with information pertaining to regulations, health requirements
and local export brokers. Since Missouri has more Katahdins than any other state,
the majority of export animals come from here.

Breeder Markets
We also sell breeding stock locally. A quality, registered lamb will bring triple the fat
lamb price. To be successful, you must sell quality, and I stress quality animals; send
anything else to slaughter. To showcase the commercial qualities of our animals, all
breeding stock we sell comes directly from pasture, having received no special
treatment.

Marketing Crossbreds
For several years we've had Romanov/Katahdin crosses. The first generation grows
quite well due to the heterosis effect, but nearly always has a wool coat.
These slaughter lambs sell comparably to pure Katahdins per pound unless they're
full of cockleburs and briars. If you're grazing crop-field aftermath, their coat will pick
up trash where a Katahdin won't.
As we disperse all our crossbreeds, we've found the crossbred cull ewes with a wool
coat have sold for 50-75% of what comparable weight hair ewes bring. This may be
due to the fact that wool can hide a lot of rib bones and other defects, while with a

hair sheep what you see is what you get.

Health Care
People converting to hair breeds all notice certain things:

As mentioned earlier, hair breeds are considerably more heat-tolerant than

wool breeds.

When the weather's hot and the pastures are dry, their wool animals will be
under a tree while the hair animals are out grazing.

When the pastures are poor, hair animals hold their body condition much
better.

Hair animals (Katahdin, St. Croix, Barbados) generally have much greater
parasite resistance than wooled breeds, especially after one year of age.
Research has shown Dorper have good parasite tolerance or resilience
rather than resistance. They can harbor significant worm populations, yet not
suffer the same effects a wool animal would. We normally worm our lambs
3-4 times a summer and the ewes not at all. Several Polypay owners in the
area worm all animals 6-8 times during the summer and still lose animals to
stomach worms.

Ticks, keds and fly strike are not a problem and to date, there has never
been a Katahdin with scrapie.

We find it's seldom necessary to trim hooves. Twice a year my friend with
Polypays shows up at work doubled over as he shuffles around in pain. Sure
enough, he's been trimming hooves.

While I can't speak for other hair breeds, Katahdins are often more "flighty"
than many other breeds: Several producers of both hair and wool animals
have found coyote losses are considerably lower with Katahdins. Apparently,
Momma Kat doesn't wait around to see what happens when Mr. Coyote
shows up for dinner.

The flocking instinct of hair animals generally isn't as good as wool breeds.
Our young Katahdins can be difficult to move. Rather than stay in a group,
they will scatter in all directions like a covey of quail.

Most hair breeds will lamb out of season without resorting to hormone
therapy.

My friend also mentioned his Katahdin-Dorper lambs are much fatter when
born than Polypays.

Docking tails is unnecessary, although you still see some "old timers" that
dock just because they always have.

Getting Down To Business

After lambing season, most of our "sheep time" is spent managing our pastures so
that we can provide our animals with the best quality forage possible. The low
maintenance qualities of Katahdins allow us the time to do so. As mentioned earlier,
the Katahdin breed has served us well.
We may be partial to the breed, but we're not raising a hobby flock. While many of
the characteristics hair animals possess appeal to the hobby flock owner, we expect
an animal to make us money; if it doesn't, it's gone. If there were a hair Hampshire or
Suffolk that would do a better job, we'd be raising them.

About Our Operation..

.
Fourteen years ago my wife got into the sheep business when she purchased three
registered Katahdin ewes, a ram, and later, three Romanov ewes.
Four years ago we began converting all
our cropland into pasture and expanded
the flock.
We are currently running 130 registered
ewes with 10 commercial ewes that will
be dispersed this year.

Note this older ram's "mane," which starts to grow at

puberty. A Katahdin ram with no mane is usually a dud.

We have an 18-cell planned grazing

system with 10,000 feet of electric
fence and 5,000 feet of underground
waterline on 35 acres. We are in the
process of installing another 10,000 feet
of electric fence on 25 acres that will
result in another nine paddocks.

This spring we had an overall lambing average of 1.9 lambs/ewe born with 1.7 lambs
weaned.
Thirty percent of the ewes were first time lambers, having an average of 1.2
lambs/ewe. Of the ewe lambs exposed, 95% gave birth at the age of 11-13 months.
Our experienced ewes averaged 2.1 lambs/ewe born with 1.9 weaned.
Three ewes needed assistance lambing (one got it, the other two didn't and lost their
lambs), one of which was 8 years old.
The majority of ewe lambs are sold as registered breeding stock; the majority of ram
lambs are sold for slaughter. Breeding stock is selected under rigorous criteria,
including parasite resistance, hair coat, growth characteristics on grass alone and
general thriftiness. Plans for the future include a larger lambing/working shedcurrently under construction, later lambing to reduce cold weather losses (10%
death loss for everything combined, stillborn, drowning in water tank, mashed, runts,

etc.), more intense selection for increased body length and a ewe flock of around
160-175 ewes.
Need more information? John & Julie Kirchhoff, Box 123, Renick, MO. 65278
sheepgirl@email.uophx.edu or: kirchhoff@ socket.net or call: (573) 641-5613

Katahdin
Katahdin sheep are a breed of hair sheep developed in the United States. The
Katahdin breed originated at the Piel Farm in north central Maine where Michael Piel
was an innovator and amateur geneticist who enjoyed raising livestock. His first
intentions related to establishing a sheep enterprise were to use sheep to graze
power lines instead of spraying or mowing the vegetation. He then developed other
ideas on how to employ sheep for land management.

In 1956 and 1957, Piel began making inquiries about hair sheep after seeing pictures in a
National Geographic magazine of West African hair sheep. He eventually made contact with
Richard Bond of the U.S. Agricultural Research Service in St. Croix, Virgin Islands who was
working with hair sheep flocks on the island.
Three "African Hair Sheep," as they were called then, were imported to Maine from St. Croix on
November 21, 1957, All were less than a year of age, born triplets, unrelated for many
generations, and woolless with woolless siblings. One female was tan in color, the male and
another female were white. The cost was $10 plus $75 shipping for each lamb
The ram lamb, "King Tut," was used for breeding a handful of ewes in December 1957,
including Tunis, Southdown, Hampshire, Suffolk, and the "African" ewe lambs. -From this point
on, crosses of many breed combinations (including Cheviots and other "Down" breeds), were

made as Piel tried to determine what would create the type of ewe he was looking for. He was
particularly selecting for hair coat, meat-type conformation, high fertility, and flocking instinct.
In the early 1970s, Piel felt he had come close to his goal of a "meat sheep that did not require
shearing." He selected from his large flock approximately 120 of the best ewes and called them
"Katahdin" sheep after Mt. Katahdin, the highest peak in the state of Maine.
In October 1975, Piel imported a handful of Wiltshire Horn sheep from Wales via Canada. He
intended to improve size and bone by incorporating the Wiltshire into the Katahdins. The first
crosses were born in 1976.
Paul and Margaret Jepson of Vermont had become acquainted with Piel while trying to locate
Wiltshire Horn stock and decided the newly developed Katahdins would suit them better. They
purchased some sheep from Piel in the mid-1970s and established the first satellite flock of
Katahdins. The Jepsons then experimented with incorporating St. Croix blood (another hair
sheep breed akin to the original "African Hair" type) into their flock in the early 1980s.
Heifer Project International, an international livestock development charity, took an interest in
Piel's work and his "improved" hair sheep. HPI realized that Katahdins were well suited to the
southern U.S. and built a sizeable flock at their center in Arkansas through the 1980s based on
stock from Piel Farm and Jepsons.
Michael Piel died suddenly of a heart attack in December of 1976. The Wiltshire Horn influence
in the Piel Farm flock increased in the late 1970s as scale and bone improved somewhat.
However, the undesirable presence of horns, decreased prolificacy and flocking instinct, and a
flightier disposition resulted from incorporating the Wiltshire Horn. During the early 1980s,
under the leadership of Barbara Piel and farm manager Charles Brown, flock selection was
against horns.
Katahdin Hair Sheep International was incorporated in 1985 as a breeders' association and
registry by Piel Farm, Heifer Project, and Donald Williams. The first inspection of animals for
the original registry flock book was conducted in 1986. Stan Musgrave, an animal scientist from
Maine familiar with the Piel flock, inspected all Katahdins known to exist across the United
States. The first KHSI members were accepted in 1987, and 23 breeders agreed to join KHSI
and register their Katahdin stock.
Katahdin are hardy, adaptable, low maintenance sheep that produce superior lamb crops and
lean, meaty carcasses. They do not produce a fleece and therefore do not require shearing. They
are medium-sized and efficient, bred for utility and for production in a variety of management
systems. Ewes have exceptional mothering ability and lamb easily; lambs are born vigorous and
alert. The breed is ideal for pasture lambing and grass/foragebased management systems.

They have demonstrated wide adaptability. They were derived from breeds that originated in the
Caribbean and British Islands and the state of Maine was their original home. In cold weather,
they grow a very thick winter coat, which then sheds during warm seasons. Their smooth hair
coat and other adaptive characteristics allow them to tolerate heat and humidity well. Katahdins
are also significantly tolerant of internal and external parasites and if managed carefully require
only minimal parasite treatment.
Katahdins are docile so are easily handled. They exhibit moderate flocking instinct.
Live weight of a mature ewe in good condition usually ranges from 120 to 160 pounds; a mature
ram will weigh 180 to 250 pounds. Average birth weight of twins is about 8 pounds.
Ewes and rams exhibit early puberty and generally have a long productive life. Mature ewes
usually have twins, occasionally producing triplets or quadruplets. A well-managed and selected
flock should produce a 200% lamb crop. Rams are aggressive breeders, generally fertile year
round, and can settle a large number of ewes in the first cycle of exposure. With selection a flock
can consistently lamb throughout the year. The Katahdin ewe shows a strong, protective
mothering instinct, usually lambs without assistance, and has ample milk for her lambs.
Lambs produce a high quality, well-muscled carcass that is naturally lean and consistently offers
a very mild flavor. Lambs are comparable to other medium-sized maternal breeds in growth and
cutability. Lambs are desirable for specialty markets at a variety of ages and weights, wethers
are appropriate for conventional North American markets at 95 to 115 pounds.
The hair coat of the Katahdin varies in length and texture among individuals and can be any
color or color combination. It generally consists of coarse outer hair fibers and an undercoat of
fine wooly fibers that becomes very thick and longer if cold weather sets in and day length
decreases. This undercoat and some hair naturally sheds as temperature and day length increase
seasonally, leaving a shorter, smooth summer coat.
The Katahdin can be used in crossbreeding programs. When crossed with wool sheep, the first
generation offspring will in most cases have wool fleeces with hair intersperse. It usually takes
at least 3 generations, depending on the type of wool sheep parentage, to obtain offspring with a
shedding hair coat and other purebred characteristics.
Katahdin Breed Associations and Registries
Reference:
Katahdin Hair Sheep International, P.O. Box 778, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72702-0778
479-444-8441; khsint@earthlink.net
Photographs:

Katahdin Hair Sheep International, P.O. Box 778, Fayetteville, Arkansas 72702-0778
479-444-8441; khsint@earthlink.net