Hair Sheep
When you think of sheep, you probably think of white puffy animals covered in thick wool that need to be sheared to stay healthy. In fact, a lot of people who see our sheep think they are goats at first! Sheep come in 2 large varieties – Wool and Hair. Wool sheep are what people commonly think of when they think of sheep. These animals have been bred to produce a thick fleece that needs to be sheared annually for the health and safety of the animal. Wool sheep are raised for wool, meat, and milk.
Hair sheep, on the other hand, have a coarse coat that consists mainly of hair similar to horse hair, interspersed with a little bit of wool. A hair sheep will naturally shed its coat every spring and does not need to be sheared. There are many hair sheep breeds, but here at SaBill Farms, we raise Katahdin and Dorper sheep. Since hair sheep do not have a useable fleece, they are mainly raised for meat and milk.
Katahdin Hair Sheep
Katahdin Hair Sheep breed was developed in the United States from imported African and Caribbean breeds of Hair Sheep in the 1950s and 60s. The breed originated at the Piel Farm in north central Maine, owned by Michael Piel.
Piel imported a handful of unrelated African hair sheep lambs from St. Croix in the Virgin Islands in 1957. He bred the imported ram lamb (“King Tut”) to Hampshire, Southdown, Suffolk, and Tunis ewes, as well as the imported African hair ewes. Over the next 10 years, Piel would include crosses with additional breeds including Cheviots to attempt to get a ewe that had a non-wool hair coat, meat-type conformation, strong flocking instinct, and high fertility.
In the early 1970s, Piel coined the named “Katahdin” from Mt. Katahdin – the highest mountain in Maine.
Katahdin Hair Sheep International (KHSI) was incorporated in 1985 as a breed registry and the first members were accepted in 1987. In 2020, KHSI had recorded nearly 173,000 animals and had over 1500 members.
“The Katahdin breed is a wool-less, 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.”
Dorper Sheep
Dorper Sheep are a hair sheep breed that was developed in South Africa in the 1930s and 40s. South African sheep farmers were exporting large amounts of sheep surplus to Great Britain but were losing out in the markets against imported New Zealand Lamb. The challenge was developing a fast growing meat lamb that could thrive in the arid and semi-arid climate of South Africa. Blackhead Persian and Horned Dorset sheep were the main cross used to develop the Dorper breed. This created a sheep that was not only hardy in the harsh climate, but was extremely fertile, breeding out of season and producing a high number of twins.
In the 1950s, the black headed Dorper was split from its solid white sibling which was referred to locally as a Dorian. In 1964, both colorations were absorbed into the umbrella breed registry by referring to the black headed sheep as Dorper and the solid white animals as White Dorper. Today, while both are under the same breed registry of the American Dorper Breeder Society (ADBS), they are considered 2 distinct breeds.
“Hardy and Adaptable – Dorper Sheep are highly adaptable and do well in harsh, extensive conditions as well as in more intensive operations.
Excellent Maternal Qualities – Ewes are excellent mothers and heavy milkers. Lambs are vigorous and have high survivability.
Long Breeding Season – Dorpers are non-seasonal or have an extended breeding season. They can easily be managed to produce three lamb crops in two years.
Reproductive Efficiency – Dorpers are very fertile and prolific. Lambing rates of 180% can be achieved per lambing.
Pre-potency – Dorper sheep cross well with commercial ewes of other breeds and as terminal sires produce fast growing, muscular lambs.
Non-Selective Grazers – Dorpers are excellent converters of a wide range of forage types and they excel in grazing or weed control operations.
Heat and Insect Tolerant – Because of their Blackhead Persian origin, Dorpers have natural tolerance to high temperatures and heavy insect populations. They are productive in areas where other breeds barely survive.”
SaBill Farms Sheep
The sheep raised at SaBill Farms include both Katahdin and Dorper sheep. Our breeding ewe flock consists of registered Katahdin, commercial Katahdin (full Katahdin but unregistered), and Katahdin/Dorper cross ewes. We run a registered Dorper ram as well as a Katahdin/Dorper commercial ram. We feel this gives our customers a wide variety of sheep to meet their needs and goals for their own farms. Our sheep are aggressively culled and selected for hardiness, parasite resistance, mothering ability, and quick gains on grass. The ewe flock is 100% on pasture where they give birth to and raise their lambs without assistance. As such, our lambs we sell for breeding have shown to be very low input at the farms they now call home.