District 8 Xmas dinner

The sheep roducers of District 8 - not just for Katahdin farms, but open to all types of sheep owners- had their annual Xmas dinner and party at the Wilderness Restaurant just outside Kingston. YOu can see it from HWY 401.

Its a little on the expensive side, but the meals are definitely worth it. I managed to win a "door prize" which was a box of Kleenex decorated with sheep pictures in a nice re-usable cloth shopping bag. Don't forget to take these with you when you go shopping to save from using plastic bags. Leave them in the car all the time and then you will always have them with you.javascript:void(0)

OSMA AGM in Guelph, Ontario

I just got back from the OSMA (Ontario Sheep Marketing Agency) AGM as I am a delegate from District 8.
As usual, there were some interesting speakers on subjects such as sheep predators. Apparently it is impossible to tell the difference between coyotes and wolves in certain parts of Ontario. Wolves are a protected species in some areas.

Other topics covered were the rising price of corn affecting profit margins of red meat, the state of the sheep industry in Ontario, scrapie, and a presentation from the Canadian Wool Growers' Association.
There were many questions about the finances and budget of OSMA, and most were answered to the members satisfaction. They are still without a general manager as they have been unable to find a suitable candidate.

The lamb at the dnner was a bit tough and not a good advertisement for the industry! It should have been cooked much slower. However the lunch on the following day was great. There were lamb skewers Greek style with Greek salad followed by a wonderful selection of cakes and deserts.

Some of our baby llamas

Canadian Katahdin Sheep Association

The CKSA AGM is to be held at the Canadian Western Agribition, Regina ,Sask in the small upper lounge in the Winter Fair Building on Friday NOv 28th at 5.30 pm 2008. Come if you are interested.
Also on NOv 27th at 4pm at the Agribition is the market Katahdin lmab show, followed at 6pm by the junior and costume show.
The next day Friday 28th Nov is the National Katahdin sheep show at 10 a.m.
Saturday NOv 29th at 2.30 p.m. is the Katahdin National Sale.

FOr info: Contact jmish@sasktel.net

Katahdin lamb prices

I just got off the phone from talking to a fellow Katahdin sheep breeder in the Smiths Falls area of Ontario. He tells me he sells the fresh lamb at a local farmers market for $7.50 a lb and that is not for the best cuts even! Apparantly, someone else is at the same market selling "regular" lamb, which has a lot more fat. Customers are simply crossing the street to buy the Katahdin lamb which is obviously so much leaner.
Another Katahdin breeder I talked to recently, tells me that Muslims prefer Katahdins as during the "Halal" kill, (which is similar to the Jewish "Kosher") the meat is less likely to be contaminated by the wool.

As prices at the livestock markets are low right now, it might make sense for us to sell the meat directly to the public. We generally sell the live lambs, rather than having them butchered first.

Did you also know that Katahdin sheep are the only breed where not a single case of scrapie has been recorded? They seem to be resistant, and it does not appear to have anything to do with the scrapie resistant gene types, as even those Katahdins who do not possess the scrapie resistant gene are not getting scrapie after being exposed to it in a provincial study.

Baby llamas

Four new baby llamas were born last week. Two males and two females-all fit and healthy and growing well. One was from a first time mother, but she did not have any problems wtih birthing or feeding. Young llamas are called "crias".

Pictures coming as soon as I get round to taking some!
One is all black, two are black with white socks and "tuxedo" fronts and one is a red brown with a white star.

Hastings Ploughing Match

Today I am off to man a booth for the Ontario Katahdin sheep Association at the Hastings County Ploughing match. This is a big annual event, with nearly as many visitors as the International Ploughng Match. Actually, I like it better because it is more about farming and less commercial. It is great for kids as well, as there are lots of free activities, contests and give aways.

We take some Katahdin sheep and lambs so come and see us at our booth! Its on August 20th and 21st and is located in a farmers fields on the Campbellford Road, North of Stirling, Ontario.

The heavy horse pulls are great to watch.

Lambs to Hoards Station

Took some Katahdin/Suffolk cross lambs to Hoards Station Livestock Market today. The prices were not as good as usual, as we only averaged $110 per lamb. Some of them were over 100albs so this might have reduced the price a bit. Prices for lambs seem a bit lower this summer than usual.
Hoards Station is a fun place to visit and take the kids. Lots of animals including rabbits,birds, chickens, puppies as well as the usual sheep,goats,cows and pigs. The occasional horses and llamas are there as well.
There is a small market place where you can buy produce or antiques, and the local churches put on a great lunch for less than $10 including coofee and pie.

Weaned lambs

We weaned the new crop of lambs from their mothers yesterday -actually just the males at this point. They area noisy bunch! They want to go back to their mothers.
The new ram is settling in nicely. In fact , he feels so much at home that he is very demanding about his grain rations!
We are starting to sell some of our 2008 ewe lambs now.

Getting new ram

Today we are on the trail of a new ram, as most of our ewes are now related to our present guy (see picture) He is now for sale for just the meat price, as he is 8 years old, but still quite capable of breeding his girls. As you can see he is big and solid, and a nice darkish brown colour. E-mail me if you are interested and live in Ontario.

District 8 Sheep Producers Meeting re tagging

The meeting to discuss the proposed RIF tagging of sheep in Ontario is to be held at Napanee Lions Hall on Thursday June 5th at 7.00 p.m. Refreshments will be served.

There is a petition circulating, but we have been told to hold off signing it until after the meeting.

Region 8 are also having a tour of the new specialty goat and cheese "green" factory in Prince Edward County, Wapoose, on Saturday May 31st at 10.00 a.m. We are meeting at the cheese factory. Lunch afterwards at the Wapoose Winery.

Tagging sheep

The sheep breeders associations in Ontario are becoming concerned about the new proposed RRIF tagging system for sheep. Although we agree that an identification system for sheep is important for tracking down sources of infectious diseases etc. we are all concerned about the increased cost to producers. These tags contain bar codes that can only be read by special scanners, which are quite expensive, as are the tags themselves. Sheep farmers with flocks varying from hundreds to even several thousand head of sheep, will face huge increases in their production costs.
District 8 is planning a meeting to discuss this problem. Dates and info to follow.

Meeting of Ontario Katahdin Breeders

Yesterday, we went down to the "county"-Prince Edward County to the Smith farm for the AGM of the Ontario Katahdin Sheep Association. Membership is $35 a year. We had a great pot luck lunch followed by election of officers and meeting. We agreed that we would have a booth at the Hastings Ploughing Match again this year. It is held on the 20th and 21st of August. There are literally thousands of people attending this farm show. This year it will be held just north of Stirling.

Sheep lawnmowers!

I just came across this great cartoon! Very appropriate with the crazy high gas prices these days. Sorry they aren't Katahdin sheep. These obviously need shearing.

No more lambs now for a few days, but the maple sap is dripping into the buckets. The snow is finally starting to melt.

Happy Customer

One of my customers is now a believer in the ease of lambing by Katahdins. He said he just went out to the lambing area and there the lambs were! No help required. He called yesterday requesting some more ewes. He was also impressed by the fact that he could easily tell which ewes were due immently by looking at the softening of back end, and the size of the udder.

The calls are also coming in from potential new customers requesting weaned ewe lambs.

The lambs are all doing fine including these spoiled suffolk cross triplets. They are still under the heat lamp. The mother is a full Katahdin.

Lambing

We have just started lambing 3 days ago. It is a pleasant surprise as according to the calendar, April 02 is the first lambing date. The 2 and 3 day lambs are doing just fine in this -15 overnight weather.

We keep our newborn lambs in lambing pens in the barn for a day or two, then they go into a larger outdoor area where there are round bale self feeders and automatic waterers. The llamas are enjoying their new friends.

The trees around our backyard are just tapped and the maple sap was running yesterday for the first time this year. Snowing-again-today!

Benefits of Katahdin Sheep

Katahdin hair sheep are a new breed of low maintenance meat sheep. They require no shearing, no docking of tails, no crotching for lambing. The size varies frm 120 lbs. to 170 lbs for ewes and 150 lbs. to 250 lbs. for rams.

The flavour is mild without the lanolin influence so the age of lambs can be extended without losing the flavour. The chlorestrol is low about 44 vs about 75 for average lamb.