Salmon Run Farms is a 50 acre farm in rural Maine that breeds exceptional Katahdin hair sheep to exacting standards. We pride ourselves on producing sheep for sale that do equally well in the show ring or on the farm while maintaining the important traits of the breed. History Salmon Run Farms began breeding sheep in 1982 with a small flock of 25 registered Suffolk ewes. Eventually we ran 3000 head of commercial ewes on our ranch and BLM land in Colorado. In 2008, after purchasing a few Katahdin ewes and a ram, it quickly became obvious that the Katahdin breed had extraordinary characteristics, and we began slowly expanding our flock and fine tuning our goals. Today we have incorporated in our program some of the finest Katahdin genetics in the breed, and we feel we have an animal that will work equally well in the show ring, on the farm or on the ranch. Our bottom line expectation is to produce a market weight choice lamb with a yield grade 1 or 2 carcass in 120-130 days from both our show ewes and farm ewes. The Katahdin Hair Sheep breed Katahdin’s are a meat breed and we strongly feel the quality attributes of the breed should be maintained. Important to the breed are fast growing lean lambs with high yields, parasite resistance, true hair coats, rugged constitutions, good flocking instincts, gentle temperaments and strong mothering abilities. Each animal on the farm is graded on a 7 point scale we have developed over the years. In addition, we are members of NSIP (The National Sheep Improvement Program) and use that data in the breeding program.

Lambing Lambing is a busy and joyous time on the farm. We ultra sound the ewes at 45 days to have a good idea of how many lambs an individual is carrying and confirmation of our expected due date from the ram marking. The ewes are managed and come into the barn 2-3 weeks prior to their due dates. And wow, do they love that! All births are in the barn so we can monitor for any pregnancy or birthing issues. We give 3 CDT injections and one BOS-E injection to the lambs. Ram lambs are separated out from the ewe lambs at 3½ months of age. Unless a customer requests, the ram lambs are kept intact and sent to market intact. Not only is it kinder to the lambs, but we feel they grow faster and leaner than wethers. Lambs are sent to market between 120-150 days. Our ethnic markets vary on desired size and tend to be smaller intact animals. We welcome visits as the lambs approach 10 weeks of age and on.

Our Flock Health The health and contentment of our sheep is our foremost concern. Intensive pasture rotation is practiced for both parasite control and pasture maintenance. Antibiotics are used very selectively and only when the health of an individual animal is in jeopardy. Our basic practices include: • very high quality dry feed or fresh forage in season • fresh air and sunshine • plenty of Maine natural spring water • parasite testing before deworming to identify if any individual is at risk • annual CDT injection and daily monitoring to prevent problems before they start.

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