Tuesday 6 September 2016

For Katahdin Sheep For Sale Kentucky Is The Way To Go

By Joseph Davis


The start of the development process of Katahdin sheep was in 1950s. Michael Piel of Maine receives the credit for developing the breed. The initial development occurred on the Piel Farm, which had many thousands of sheep at the moment. Other breeders adopted the breed from Piel Farm, and today, its population in the United States keeps growing. Therefore, when in search for Katahdin sheep for sale Kentucky offers a good place to prioritize. Breeders in Kentucky are careful with their breeding practices so that they produce high-quality animals for sale. The breeders offer reasonable prices.

One factor motivated Piel into the development of the breed. Piel realized that other factors other than wool needed to be based upon when engaging in breed selection for meat. Wool breeds were after all not the best animals for meat production. Piel wanted to combine the good qualities he saw in wool breeds with those in Virgin Island sheep to produce a new breed.

Virgin Island sheep possessed hardiness, prolificacy, and hair coat that Piel wanted. So, Piel set out to combine the characteristics in Virgin Island animals with the rate of growth and meat conformation of wool breeds. The experimentation began with crossing hair breeds and other British breeds, particularly Suffolk.

For the next twenty years, Piel engaged in the development of the new breed by choosing only animals that possessed the required traits. At the end of the experiment, Piel had come up with a flock of ewes that he named Katahdins. The origin of the name is Mt. Karahdin in Maine. In 1970s, the integration of Wiltshire Horn was done as a way of enhancing size and quality of the carcass.

The population of katahdins countrywide and worldwide has been increased a lot from the original flock developed at the Piel Farm. The expansion is performed with careful selection for carcass quality, hair coat, and reproductive efficiency. The formation of KHSI was done in 1986. The purpose of KNSI was to register individual Katahdins, assist with marketing and promotion, encourage research and development towards betterment of the breed, and to record performance.

Registration of an animal is done at the age of one year after a thorough inspection is performed to make sure that it conforms with the standards of the breed. One must be one of the members of KNSI for them to request for an inspection and have their animal registered. Lambs whose parents are 100 percent pure and registered do not need to be inspected for registration anymore. Those parents must have been born after 1/1/1998.

There are several qualities in katahdins that are way superior over those in other breeds. Compared to other breeds, this breed has been proven to be more resistant to parasitic attacks. Individual maintain good health and growth even in the face of parasitic attack. Similarly, the breed is more heat resistant.

Other qualities compared with other breeds are fertility factors, growth performance, prolificacy, meat flavor, out-of-season breeding, and carcass quality. The superior meat flavor of this breed makes it favorable to many people worldwide.




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