O

ur sheep business is built around our flock of Katahdin Hair Sheep, an American Heritage Breed. Katahdin Hair Sheep were originally developed on the Piel Farm in north central Maine near Mt. Katahdin. His purpose was to develop a new line of non-wool producing sheep (hair sheep) that would not require shearing, would prove hardy, reliable mothers, with good flocking instincts and high fertility. The perfect sheep to supply fresh lamb to the American table.

For more information - see KHSI - http://www.khsi.org.

Our Katahdin breeding stock comes from breeders emphasizing all the best qualities and strong mothering qualities, good fertility, plenty of milk for newborn lambs, and parasite resistance.

We have a strong commitment to producing healthy animals while minimizing the use of antibiotics and wormers. The cornerstone of our program means providing a healthy environment for our sheep with good pasture rotation, plenty of fresh water, sunshine and fresh air. When necessary, we supplement our animals with organic hay harvested on our property and occasional grain when caloric requirements are high, but for the most-part, our animals spend their days grazing on our Maryland farm.

 One area of interest in our breeding program is improving the parasite resistance of our flock. To further this goal, we use a system of checking

anemia called FAMACHA in conjunction with fecal egg counts to determine when dewormers are necessary. This allows us to minimize the use of dewormers, whose overuse has led to increasing drug-resistance, while maintaining the health of our flock. Our ultimate goal is to develop a line of katahdins that rarely require deworming, but maintain all the best qualities that originally attracted us to the Katahdin breed in the first place.