Maggie's Farm Sheep

How Sheep Came to Mulberry Creek

A friend of ours had sheep - Katahdin hair sheep, in fact. She actually had received them as, of all the bizarre things, a wedding gift and came to the decision to move on so was selling her herd. She was down to the last ewe and pair of lambs and we said, "We like lamb/mutton, we'll buy them." They came to live at our place and, when the lambs were old enough to butcher, we had extremely ediliscious meat.

We decided to take a bit with us to the farmers market just as a test. Well, since Owensboro is the mutton barbecue capital of the universe, we have never had any trouble selling lamb there! We decided to work on increasing our flock. It's taken a few years, but the flock is growing, as is our market!

You may be wondering why, if we have Katahdins, the photo above shows fluffy Shetlands. I'll let the younger member of the family tell that story. She'll also describe the two breeds we keep.

We also have Shetland wool sheep, which have an interesting story to themselves. Mom and I arrived at the Rockport Farmers Market one afternoon midway through the afternoon. When we sat down, Papa turned around from talking to one of the other vendors and asked Mom, "Would we like some Shetland sheep?" I thought it was a great idea, but Mom just said "No." Papa promptly turned around to the other vendor and said, "Sure." That was in 2014 and we still have them!

I knew Mom thought we didn't need any more animals, especially ones that produce wool, something that isn't edible. I tried to explain to her that they would be cool to have and we would only have to shear them once a year. She held strong, though, until Papa pointed out that they would be a lot easier for me to handle showing at the 4H fair than full sized Katahdins! Especially since getting hit by a Shetland is exactly like getting hit with a large marshmallow!

Katahdin Hair Sheep

The first sheep we had were Katahdins. Since they are hair sheep, their main use is for meat, although, they are good lawn mowers, too.

People who visit the farm sometimes think that the Katahdins are goats. They do look similar, but they are not the same critter. They are both used for meat (sheep more than goats) and while sheep can be milked, we do not milk them. There are some people who do, but we let the lambs have it all and that makes them very happy.

Where to Obtain our 100% Grass-Fed Lab and Mutton

Wool Available

Shetland Wool Sheep

Just like their name, Shetlands are used primarily for wool, although they also make very tasty (and very tiny!) cuts of meat. You can see from the picture that they give a lot of wool, too. You can eat them and you probably can milk them (I've never tried). I call them fluffy little marshmallows. The fluffy comes from the fact that most of the year they are covered in wool, the little comes from the fact that they are smaller than other varieties. They're like the miniature variety of sheep, and the marshmallow comes from the fact that they are really fluffy. Oh, I might have forgotten to mention that Shetlands are really fluffy sheep.