Their meandering and wandering grazing is perfect for the hill country of Scotland, as an example, or on east coast pastures.  In the west where sheep are placed on large tracks of range land, they would likely not survive well.  Sheep that flock together more tightly will have some strength in numbers against predators.  Texel sheep disperse themselves across the pasture like grains of salt spread across the green hills.

 

 

We train working Border Collies so having various types of sheep available for work and training is very beneficial to the dogs.  The wool sheep do only what the dog tells them to do.  Because of the independent nature of the Texel sheep, if a dog does not learn to cover all of the sheep on a gather, some will simply stand-by and see if the dog notices them.  Some inexperienced dogs will at first, leave some of the sheep behind.  Making sure that the dog learns to bring all of the sheep is very important and the Texel sheep are fabulous for these lessons.

 

 

The Texel lambs will challenge all dogs until they understand where they reside in the pecking order on the farm.  Weak dogs be prepared to take a beating.  Once the lambs have been "convinced" that doing it the dog's way is best, all is fine.

 

The primary characteristics of the Texel sheep are; 1) big broad rear ends (good for meaty leg of lamb), 2) pudgy or "prosperous" appearance, and 3) rather broad heads.  The later charactersitic needs to be considered when selecting breeding rams. 

 

The Texel ewes are not particulary prolific lambers.  However, you are unlikely to see prettier lambs.  Hair sheep, our Katahdins in particular, are much easier lambers, better mothers, and more prolific. 

 

We welcome visitors to our farm anytime of the year, but during lambing is a particulary interesting time as there is always something going on, moving lambs from the field to the barn, tending to bottle lambs, and the dogs getting to do some "real" work.  Groups are welcome and children seem to love the excitement of lambing in the spring.

 

The breed is named after the highest mountain in Maine, from which Dr. Piel resides.  Although they are refered to as "hair sheep" that is a bit of misnomer as they have "wool" (not a very useful fiber) that sheds very nicely and neatly.

 

 

The Katahdin ewes are also incredible mothers.  They lamb without any assistance.  Pasture lambing is very common with Katahdin hair sheep.  They are also exceptional mothers.  They are very attentive to their new borns and clean them up with vigor and they are very protective of their lambs. 

 

The hair sheep flock is very low maintenance.  If you start out with Katahdins, you will not know what shepherding is all about until you get a flock of wool sheep. 

 

The meat of a Katahdin is relatively lean and mild.  It is a very good meat sheep.  The hind quarter of a Katahdin is not very big and the eye of chops is fairly small compared to larger wool commercial sheep.  However, the taste is very good.

 

One of the best ways to prepare a Katahdin lamb for a party is to simply dig a small pit and build a fire.  Once the wood has create coals, place a freshly dressed whole lamb of a spit.  Use olive oil all over the lamb and sprinkle liberally Kosher salt.  Rotate the lamb often and cook for about 3 hours (depending on the size of the lamb).  I promise you a wonderful culinary experience.

 

Thus far, we have used registered Katahdin rams for breeding.  The last two years we have used a registered ram from Richard Brandon near Greenville, TN.  We have been using rams that have black hooves and we have found that to be a dominant trait that is carried to the lambs.  Our experience has been that black hooves are far more resistant to scalding and foot root.  We seldom have any ewes that limp and seldom have to trim hooves.  We have been fortunate to keep foot rot off the farm and we will be deligent to keep it that way.