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Breed Origin
The development of the breed began in the
late 1950's with the importation of a small number of haired sheep
from the Caribbean by Michael Piel of Maine. The Piel Farm had
several thousand sheep at the time and Piel felt that "progress in
selection for traits important to the production of meat would be
greatly enhanced by the elimination of wool as a major factor for
selection." His goal was to combine the hair coat, prolificacy, and
hardiness of the Virgin Island sheep with the meat conformation and
rate of growth of wool breeds. He began to experiment with crosses
between the hair sheep and various British breeds, especially
Suffolk. After almost 20 years of crossing the resulting hybrids "in
every conceivable combination" and selecting the individuals with
the desired combination of traits, Piel eventually collected a flock
of ewes he called KATAHDINS, named after Mt. Katahdin in Maine.
During the mid 1970's the Wiltshire Horn, a shedding breed from
England, was incorporated into the flock to add size and improve
carcass quality.
From this original flock, new breeders have
been able to expand the number of Katahdin sheep in North America
and many other countries, and select carefully for hair coat,
carcass quality, and reproductive efficiency. In 1986, a breeders
organization, Katahdin Hair Sheep International (KHSI) was formed.
Its purposes are to:
* Register individual Katahdins and record
performance
* Assist in promotion and marketing
* Encourage research and development related to the breed.
All Katahdins eligible for registration are
inspected after one year of age to insure conformity with the
standard of type. Breeders are required to be KHSI members to
register sheep or request flock inspection. (Note: Lambs from 100%
registered parents born after 1/1/98 no longer require inspection)
There are provisions for producers to follow
an upgrading program to develop a purebred Katahdin flock by
recording each cross with KHSI.
Katahdin sheep display many desirable
economic traits. In order to scientifically document and test these
traits, Katahdin breeders have been involved in several experimental
trials.
Studies of internal parasite tolerance in
Arkansas indicate that Katahdin sheep possess a significantly higher
degree of parasite resistance than wool sheep that they were
compared to. Heat tolerance trials demonstrated a similar
relationship. Other traits being studied at research institutions
include out-of-season breeding, prolificacy and fertility factors,
carcass quality and meat flavor, and growth performance.
Breed Standards
The Katahdin breed is a wooless, easy care,
meat type sheep, naturally tolerant of climatic extremes and capable
of high performance in a wide variety of environments. The purpose
of the breed is to efficiently produce meat.
The covering of the Katahdin does not
require shearing and is preferably completely free of permanent
wooly fibers. The coat can be any color or pattern. Polled animals
are preferred; horned and scurred individuals are recorded as such.
Katahdins are a heavy-muscled, medium-sized
breed. They demonstrate adaptability by performing well in areas
varying in geography, temperature, and humidity, feed and forage
resources, and management systems. Ewes are easy lambers, and
exhibit strong maternal instincts and good milking ability. They
possess high potential for early puberty, fertility, and lamb
survivability.
Lambs grow and mature rapidly to an
acceptable market weight range and produce relatively lean and well
muscled carcasses with a very mild flavor.
General Appearance: A medium-sized sheep with a
hair coat and an alert appearance; head erect and legs squarely
placed. Rams are distinctly masculine and well-muscled; ewes strong
and feminine.
Head: Variety in facial characteristics is
expected. Polled-ness is preferred, but horns and scurs are
acceptable. Eyes are wide set, and ear carriage is horizontal. Lower
teeth meet the dental pad evenly.
Neck: Strong, of medium length: extends straight
into the shoulder. A ram’s neck may be covered by a mane of hair.
Shoulders: Blend smoothly into the neck and
back; shoulder blades have good width between and are level with or
slightly higher than the back. Well-developed upper arm muscle in
rams.
Chest: Wide and deep enough to provide ample
room for good heart and lung capacity. Slightly less width than
hindquarters in females.
Back: Strong, smooth, and broad; loin long,
wide, deep and well-fleshed.
Ribs: Well sprung, wide and deep.
Abdomen: Large capacity for consuming forage and
carrying lambs (bottom or side line should not necessarily be
straight).
Rump: Wide and well fleshed; rounded appearance;
deep in twist.
Tail: Length is variable; preferably undocked,
except for market lambs.
Legs: Medium length and bone in proportion to
size. Sound leg structure: properly angled at hock, front legs
straight, strong pasterns, straight feet free of defect. Muscles of
the thigh are thick, with obvious muscularity on the inner and outer
thigh, carried down to the shank.
Scrotum, Udder: Two large, well-developed and
balanced testicles in rams. Two teats on well-developed,
well-balanced udder with good attachment in ewes. Organs free of
obvious functional defect or disease.
Hair Coat: No discrimination is made as to color
on any part of the body. The coat shall preferably consist of hair
rather than wooly fibers, though hair texture will vary. (Refer to
the Animal Inspection section of the General Instructions for a
description of coat types.)
Defects:
• Over-or
undershot jaw
• Very light
bone structure
• Weak
shoulders or back
• Cow- or
sickle-hocked legs
• Weak
pasterns or splayed hoofs
•
Cryptorchidism or monorchidism
• Extremely
small testicles
• Missing or malformed
teats
Breed History
Katahdin sheep are a breed of hair sheep developed
in the United States, a small but growing element of the sheep
industry in North America. There are 100 million hair sheep around
the world—10% of the world’s sheep population—of which 90% are in
Africa and 10% are in Latin America and the Caribbean.
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.
Barbara Piel wrote: “From the time Michael was in
high school and had a small flock of Suffolks, he was fascinated by
sheep, their history and management. When he moved to Maine after
World War II, he raised Corriedales and Columbias, but the market
for wool set him thinking about a meat sheep that wouldn’t need
shearing. If the grower wanted to concentrate on the lamb market, he
had no choice but to grow wool as well; so he began research and
correspondence to firm up his ideas on how to produce a meat sheep.”
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.
Piel imported “African Hair Sheep,” as they were
called then, to Maine from St. Croix in November 1957. All were less
than a year of age, born triplets, unrelated for many generations,
and wool-less with wool-less siblings. One female was tan in color,
the others were white. 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.
Excerpts from a Piel letter dated December 28, 1965:
“ This
season I kept about 120 part-African ewe lambs, so I now have at
least 200 part-African ewes. I bred quite a few of them to my old,
original African ram, “King Tut” in order to get a bunch of
3/4-breds. I bred another big bunch to another yearling ram which
I had selected because of improved conformation as well as
relative wool-less ness. This ram was part-African and
part-Suffolk. The rest were bred to miscellaneous part-African ram
lambs in hopes that the law of chance would shake up the genes a
little bit. I noticed this fall that I now have three or four
part-African ewes that are quite a lot better than average. One is
almost pure hair, with just a patch of wool on top of the
shoulders and a little bit on the gaskin area. Her conformation is
really quite good, I think. It is my hope that I will soon get
enough of such outstanding individuals to be able to start a
“family” to select from. Then I can cull back the flock
drastically and start from scratch.”
In 1963, a pure African Hair ram lamb was provided
to John Glenn at Louisiana State University to use in crossbreeding
trials with “Louisiana Natives,” a local landrace type of wool sheep
that was extremely hardy and adapted to the hot, humid climate. Dr.
Glenn saw a great deal of potential in the crosses and offered a
¼-blood Native ram to Piel to reduce inbreeding pressure (though
this did not materialize). However, the promising crossbreeding
program was dropped abruptly in 1967 when Glenn left LSU, and his
supervisor was more inclined to use Suffolks to improve carcass
quality.
John Glenn wrote to Michael Piel January 17, 1966:
“We have never had any difficulty with low
fertility from the African Hair rams or the crossbred ewes when
breeding in April and May, or in fact, in any of the seasons.
Almost all of our African Hair-cross ewes bred at the first period
in April and produced lambs in September and October. I feel that
this possibility of producing lambs throughout the year, as well
as providing sheep that would not have to be sheared, which many
of our producers consider a disadvantage since shearers are very
difficult to obtain here, might encourage some of the local
livestock men to obtain a flock of sheep along with their beef
cattle operation. In fact, I often think that this is the only
possibility of establishing a sheep industry in Louisiana within
the near future at least.”
Michael Piel wrote back in January 22, 1966:
“It occurs to me that it would not be completely
out of the question for an Agricultural College such as yours to
obtain a financial grant from some such outfit as the DuPont
people to pursue the development of a wool-less breed of sheep.
After all, they are largely responsible for ruining the wool
business, and it would only be to their advantage (for public
relations) to demonstrate that sheep production could be
profitable without wool production.”
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 Jepson's 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.
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, thus diminishing the
Wiltshire genetic influence on the Katahdin breed and strengthening
maternal traits once again.
Heifer Project International, an international
livestock development charity, took an interest in Piel’s work and
his “improved” hair sheep. Piel accompanied an HPI-sponsored
shipment of his sheep to Guatemala in February 1976 and was caught
in a devastating earthquake there just after the plane landed—a very
stressful experience for him! 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 Jepson's.
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 by Stan
Musgrave, an animal scientist from Maine familiar with the Piel
flock. The first KHSI members were accepted in 1987, and
twenty-three breeders agreed to join KHSI and register their
Katahdin stock.
Interest and enthusiasm for the breed has developed
steadily since those early days. Ten years later, at the end of
1997, KHSI has registered over 14650 animals and has a membership of
325 breeders throughout North America. Mandatory inspection of
registered Katahdins continued through 1998, strengthening
predictability of hair coat and standard of type. Commercial flocks
of Katahdin and Katahdin-cross ewes have become more popular for
efficient, low-input meat lamb production. Hundreds of Katahdins
have been exported to Central and South America, the Caribbean, and
Southeast Asia as well. The Katahdin breed has proven to be
adaptable, easy to manage and efficient—no wonder it is a “breed
whose time has come.”
Breed
Characteristics
Katahdins 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/forage-based management systems.
Adaptability: Katahdins 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 more tolerant of
internal and external parasites than wooled sheep, and if managed
carefully require only minimal parasite treatment.
Temperament: Katahdins are docile so are easily
handled. They exhibit moderate flocking instinct.
Size: Live weight of a mature ewe in good
condition usually ranges from 125 to 185 pounds; a mature ram will
weigh 180 to 250 pounds. Average birth weight of twins is about 8
pounds.
Reproduction: 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.
Mothering: The Katahdin ewe shows a strong,
protective mothering instinct, usually lambs without assistance, and
has ample milk for her lambs. Rejection of lambs is rare.
Carcass and Growth: 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.
Coat: 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. While some uses
may be found for the shed fiber, it is generally not harvested.
Crossbreeding: 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
interspersed (the wool from such crosses should be segregated to
avoid contaminating higher quality wools). 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 ewes are well-suited as a base in a
terminal sire crossbreeding program to produce market lambs.
Market:
Katahdins are in demand by:
• those who
want to raise sheep that do not need shearing
• producers
who live in areas where wool is a detriment to adaptation or where
wool markets are poor
• those who
wish to eat or market superior quality lamb with a mild flavor
• stock dog
trainers
• land managers looking
for a low-maintenance small ruminant |
Hardy
