5 Reasons Katahdin Sheep are BEST for Beginners
Hi everybody! In today’s video we’re talking about Katahdin sheep and all of the reasons they make great sheep for beginners.
I hope this helps.
Happy homesteading!
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Timestamps:
00:00 Katahdin Sheep are dope
0:24 Newbie
1:33 Benefits of Hair Sheep
3:21 Hybrid Vigor
5:27 Accessibility
6:44 Parasite Resistance
8:09 Carcass Yield
9:41 Lightning Round
11:16 Quote of the Day
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ABOUT Homesteading with PJ!
Hi! I’m PJ, and my family loves the homesteading life! It’s something my wife and I have always wanted to do, but we grew up with ZERO HOMESTEADING EXPERIENCE!!!!! We grew up in beautiful southern California, 15 minutes away from the beach. As amazing as that was, we both dreamed of a life closer to land and animals. After getting married and moving to Utah, our family slowly grew. We had become a family of four living in a townhome with a small backyard filled with potted plants.
In 2019 we dipped our feet into homesteading on 1 ¼ acre lot in Utah. In 18 months we were ready to do this for real. So in 2021 we packed everything up and moved to North Carolina to 12 acres and we love every inch of our homestead!
We raise sheep and have big plans for:
• grass-fed lamb
• meat chickens
• laying chickens
• heritage breed pork
• honey
• vegetable garden
• perennial food forest
• and more
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DISCLAIMER: This video and description contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I’ll receive a small commission. But don't worry, it doesn't cost you anything extra!
#homesteading
Thank you for the music!
-www.epidemicsound.com/track/b...
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St. Croix Sheep Photo:
Carly & Art from Washington, DC, CC BY-SA 2.0
www.flickr.com/photos/6050945...
Team St Croix here!! Like the carcass of the Katahdin and Dorper. Here in Louisiana St Croix can handle the heat and humidity.
I like Katahdin ewes. However, the rams I got suck. So, I got a Dorper/Katahdin mix and I really like its personality. Very gentle and stand-offish. Better than getting rammed.
I have no problem believing that. The rams I have are nothing special. My best Katahdins ram is about the size of my smallest Dorper ram.
i was so pumped when i saw you picked up some katahdins. they are so sweet and docile. whats really cool is when you start mix and matching. kadorpers is so common for the hair sheep guys here. you basically breed to the quality you want the most all around and when you notice theres some flaws coming out of a year of lambs you mix up more dorper or more katahdin the next year. funny with the ram thing, our full blood dorper ram named lucy-- lucifer... was a wild guy until he settled in and is an absolute doll... his predecessor named gilbert-- who was a big ole katahdin ram, not so much, he was 250 lbs of musle and full on tried to kill me. only downside with rams is that your kats are lanky so they will have a bit more reach when they get wild.. but you dont need to worry about that with ewes. they are all so sweet. bang on about all of those qualities... so just to put a bug in your ear if you ever get back to breeding... imagine the wonderful characteristics of the katahdin moms, the stocky long loins of the dorper dad... and the best of both worlds. and once youre done, sell the ram or eat him :P
As always, you are dropping loads of wisdom Paul! I think if I breed sheep again it will be a mut. I sold my two best Dorper rams to my next door neighbor, so I can see/hear them all the time! He bought two St. Criox ewes and is crossing them. I'm thinking that if he has some stock that he wants to get rid of, I will take his muts and mix with some new stock. I've certainly had the itch to cross sheep, and get back into breeding sheep again. I have big dreams for clearing some land to really expand the flock...
Katahdin are super common around here. I was super set on getting royal white which isn't really available as a breed in canada like it is in the US. The best you can get is st. Croix ewes and a white dorper ram and getting the cross. They're still great sheep but it is incredibly hard to get new genetics into a flock because both of those breeds are super rare. I'd love to expand on those breeds more because I do really like them both, however it would be much easier to go with katahdins simply for the availability. Maybe I'll expand into katahdins some day too :)
Yeah, Royal Whites sound like amazing sheep, but like you said, hard to find. Even me in the US, I've never actually met anyone raising them. Sounds like you've done your homework and you're flock is in good hands!
Pj back with another banger!
You're too kind!!!
@@homesteadingwithPJ no way, you're too kind for making these great and informative videos for us.
Bravo Sir. Excellent Info, as well as straight forward.
You should do a video on plants that are poisonous to sheep and how to manage them.
💯
Great idea! I've written it down in my notes for future video ideas.
strangely, my ewe eats fuschias seemingly without a problem, though they're supposed to be bad for them; when my goat ate some, he got diarrhea
As always another great and very informative video. Thank you for sharing your experience and knowledge. Really enjoy your videos and channel.👊🏾
Thanks for the kind words!
last August, we were given Katahdin ram and ewe; they had only been about a year old, but it wasn't known if the ewe was pregnant. the ram was very gentle, etc. Now that it's May, we still haven't gotten a lamb, so wondering if the ram is effective or not. Also, the ram has slowly become very mean, with butting us, ramming us, etc, so we've had to start using a billy club to keep him in check. They are all those other things you mentioned--hair coming off by itself, good foragers (but they like my roses), and nicely not needing to be docked anywhere. We're hoping to get meat lambs from them, so I'm not sure how much more time to give them to produce a lamb.
Always enjoy the info PJ. Being in Utah, would you still recommend Katahdin? I am pretty interested in Icelandic. Too many breeds to choose from.
Katahdins are pretty darn versatile, so they could do well in Utah. BUT, I had Dorpers in Utah and thought they were amazing sheep for the climate. Utah is actually great sheep country for any hair sheep since it's so dry, so parasites are usually not an issue in Utah pastures.
@@homesteadingwithPJ Thank you for the extra info PJ!
“Fixed mindset” 💥💥💥 🤣
Seriously though. It's the biggest thing holding most people back.
Time to trade in the goats 🐐 for these guys I'm thinking!
Dude!
Seus animais são de qualidade superior gratidão por compartilhar saludos de Brasil
"If you value your pelvis, go Katahdin" hahaha
Can you do anything with the shed hair as a byproduct? Or is it more like horse hair?
Great video. We have katahdin sheep and finish them off on soybean meal the last month. Have you considered that?
I don't have any experience with soybean meal, but since it's usually a heavly GMO-ed crop, I try to stear clear of it. However, I just haven't researched it much. I've never finished off Katahdins before, they are certainly slower growers than Dorpers, so I may to consider something to fatten them up at the end. Dorpers would get really fat from alfalfa hay, but that's so expensive. I do use occasional whole oats. We'll see!
@@homesteadingwithPJ Good stuff. Yes, I don't like the GMO either but I also look at numbers closely like you do and if you aren't feeding much it seems to not be as bad.
@@StewartFarmApiary Sounds like you've done your research.
I'm looking forward to getting a few Katahdins in the next few years. I just wish they had horns. Anyone ever had experience with milking them?
I haven't milked them, but I've heard you can. Mine are soo timid that I imagine you'd have to really train them with treats. But I have one Katahdin ram with small horns. He broke one of them off butting heads with his brothers though!
Hm... very interesting. Love the info. If you care about your pelvis kathadins could be right for you 😂
It's true! These guys haven't tried to knock me down once. They butt heads with each other a few times each day, but never me. Just the way I like it!
So wait if the sheep don’t have horns how can they protect them self
Price range ?
I paid like $175 USD per male rams (not stud quality). But like all things, I'm sure there are more expensive animals. I would guess that papered, proven ewes are around $400-$650 USD. But I haven't shopped for any recently.
lets see my farm, its georgious
I’m going to try katahdin’s out on our 6 acres here in the sierras of California. I’m looking for a good tractor design at the moment.
Not to be rude but I don't think you understand what "hybrid vigor" is or how it comes about. Just because katadhin are a "new-ish" hybrid animals doesn't mean they have "hybrid vigor". That breed has been fairly stabilized for decades. Hybrid vigor results from say an Angus bull crossing with a Hereford female. Note both are PUREBREDS. The resulting "black faced baldie" has a higher *likelihood* of being more vigorous than either parent....but not always. Some bottom barrel Hereford mated to some auction barn cheap Angus does not result in hybrid vigor. Same with sheep. Given several generations of very high selection and line breeding you can develop a high vigor PUREBRED.
Not rude at all! I write outlines to follow and then when the camera starts rolling I mess it all up.😅 What I was trying to get across is the benefits of hybrid vigor when you breed a quality purebred, with another quality purebred of another breed. You said it very well in your comment! Katahdins themselves aren't experiencing hybrid vigor, however they are genetically diverse animals because of the wide array of animals it took to create them (I think like 5-6 different breeds). Therefore they have have positive traits of genetically diverse animals. But yeah, a purebred Katahdin isn't experiencing hybrid vigor on its own. But is a purebred Katahdin more genetically diverse, than say, a purebred Suffolk, probably...
@@homesteadingwithPJ 👍