Katahdin sheep are 'hair sheep': they naturally shed their fleece in the spring and don't require shearing. The purpose of the breed is to efficiently and economically produce meat. We chose Katahdins for a number of reasons:

• Significantly higher parasite tolerance than wooled sheep

• Ability to breed non-seasonally for an 'accelerated' lambing program

• Ewes are easy lambers, exhibit strong maternal instincts, and are good milkers

• Carcasses are well-muscled, meat is lean and mild-flavored

• Their coat can be any color or pattern! They're beautiful animals.

• For more information, see our FAQ's.

Some of our ewes, shedding their winter coats. They grow a heavy fleece for winter; their summer coat resembles that of deer.. smooth, short hair.

To improve the growth rate and muscling of our market lambs, we bred our ewes to our registered Dorper ram last fall. Dorper sheep are also 'hair sheep'.. this is Jupiter, our ram, with his winter coat.

The Dorper is a South African breed with heavy muscling. We will also acquire some registered Dorper ewes in the future, to produce breeding stock.

We use an accelerated lambing program. Rather than one lamb crop per year, we take advantage of the breed's ability to reproduce year-round, so that we expect to have 5 lambings in a 3-year period. We try to post on the site as soon as we have lambs available for sale. If you are interested in a ram lamb, please let us know as we will castrate most of the ram lambs for market, only keeping the 2-3 best for sale as breeders.

Our ewes were bred for the first time at 7-9 months of age. Mature Katahdin ewes generally produce twins, occasionally triplets or quadruplets.

"Jean Harlow", with her twin lambs.

"Trigger" was our over-achieving first-time mom, producing triplet ram lambs: birth weights were 6, 7.5, and 8 pounds.

Click here for pictures of our December '05 lambs, and here for some pictures of April/May '05 lambs. Here are some of last year's lambs. FOR SPRING LAMBS AVAILABLE NOW, please click here.

When we say Katahdins can be any color.. we didn't expect "Bozo"! He's all colors at once.

A selection of our lambs, left, with a couple of ewes.

We will have lambs available as locker lamb, in December 2008.

Call 515-232-5772 or e-mail to reserve your lambs!

NEXT LAMBING: October 08

We will have Katahdin/Dorper crosses and purebred Katahdin lambs. We will have pictures of lambs on the site as soon as possible, with prices and available lambs for sale. If you're interested in buying, you may reserve early for best selection.

We will be using a new Katahdin sire for breeding in 2008; shown at right as a yearling. According to his EPD's, he should be a great producer of quality lambs for breeding.

We participate in the Voluntary Scrapie Flock Certification Program, as of 2003.

Our memberships include:

• Practical Farmers of Iowa
• Katahdin Hair Sheep International
• Farm Bureau
• American Dairy Goat Association
• American Dorper Sheep Breeder's Society

Separated at birth???