When most people picture a livestock farm in the rolling pastures of Northeast Georgia, they picture cows. Truthfully, so did I, and so did my neighbors: I’m surrounded by cattle operations, and I myself have a small starter herd of 4 head of angus cattle. 

One of the reasons I bought land in Northeast Georgia was because I wanted to raise nutrient-dense animal protein (both for my own freezer and to fill the freezers of my family and community) while improving soil health and taking care of healthy, happy animals. I was fascinated by grazing systems, forage management, and regenerative agriculture long before I owned a single animal. Naturally, cattle were, and still are, part of that vision.

The reality, however, is that every farm has limits or a “carrying capacity”. Here in Northeast Georgia, a reasonable carrying capacity is often around one cow for every two acres of pasture. With roughly twenty acres of grazeable ground at Deer Creek Pastures, that means my cattle herd will likely top out around ten cows depending on how effectively I manage rotational grazing over time. By contrast, in the same pastures, I can raise approximately six Katahdin hair sheep ewes with lambs on a single acre. Note, there are ways to overcome carrying capacity, such as through supplemental feed, but those decisions often come with both financial costs, and costs to the health of your land. 

I am absolutely raising cattle because I enjoy them. Watching cows move through fresh pasture is one of my favorite parts of farming, and I plan to keep building my small herd. But when I started thinking about how to best utilize every acre of forage available to me and scale the farm as a business venture, scaling my sheep flock quickly moved from an interesting side project to the center of the plan.

Sheep Let Me Make Better Use of My Pasture

My pastures are primarily fescue-based, with Bermuda grass, clover, and a variety of other forage species mixed throughout. Sheep are incredibly efficient at converting that forage into high-quality protein.

Because of their smaller size and grazing habits, I can support significantly more sheep than cattle on the same acreage. While cows remain an important part of the farm and my journey as a farmer, sheep allow me to make fuller use of the forage I’m already growing while producing more pounds of meat per acre.

As a first-generation farmer, sheep also felt less intimidating. A mature cow can weigh well over 1,000 pounds. For someone with no livestock background, that is a lot of animal to learn on. Sheep, on the other hand, felt approachable. They’re easier to handle, easier to transport, and less physically imposing while you’re learning the countless lessons that farming inevitably teaches.

Of course, “less intimidating” does not mean “easy.” Sheep have provided plenty of opportunities for humility over the last few years between escapes, parasites, disease, and hoof trims.

Why I Specifically Chose Katahdin Hair Sheep

Not all sheep are created equal: some sheep are raised for their fiber, others for their milk, and others with a focus on meat quality. Some breeds may serve dual functions. Katahdins are a breed of hair sheep, meaning they don’t produce a traditional wool fleece. Instead of requiring annual shearing, they naturally shed their winter coat each year. For a small farm with limited labor and a long list of projects, eliminating shearing is a significant advantage.

Katahdins were developed primarily as a meat breed, producing mild-flavored, lean lamb that appeals to both longtime lamb lovers and people trying lamb for the first time.

They also fit well into a pasture-based production system. My lambs are raised primarily on grass with supplemental feed and hay provided when conditions or growth rates warrant it. Under good conditions, lambs can typically go from birth to processing weight in about six months, allowing us to efficiently convert pasture into food.

If you’re interested in reserving pasture-raised lamb from Deer Creek Pastures, you can visit our lamb shares page for upcoming availability.

Faster Growth Means Faster Food

One reason sheep have become such an important part of my farm plan is simple: everything happens faster.

A cow’s gestation period is roughly nine months, similar to a human’s. The waiting game is long while you hope for a healthy calf on the ground. Once the calf is born, if raised for food it would typically be a 2 year plus growth period on pasture. A sheep’s gestation period is about five months with ram lambs growing out for food as quickly as six months on pasture. While cows usually have one calf at a time, sheep frequently have twins and occasionally even triplets.

That means flock growth can happen surprisingly quick I started with two ewes (female sheep) in June of 2024 and I am now up to eleven head of sheep. 

For a small farm trying to build breeding stock while also producing meat, that accelerated timeline matters. More lambs mean more opportunities to improve genetics, expand the flock, and put locally raised food into freezers sooner.

If you’ve followed along during lambing season, you’ve probably already seen firsthand how quickly a pasture can go from a handful of sheep to what feels like a small army of bouncing lambs. You can read more about that experience in my lambing season post.

The Parasite Challenge in North Georgia

One of the traits that originally attracted me to Katahdins was their reputation for parasite resistance. If you’ve ever farmed in the Southeast, you know parasites are not a theoretical concern. Warm temperatures, abundant rainfall (typically, this year has been a unique journey as we navigate extreme drought conditions), and clay soils create ideal conditions for internal parasites, particularly barber pole worms, one of the most significant health threats to sheep in our region.

Katahdins generally perform better than many traditional wool breeds when it comes to parasite resistance, but resistance does not mean immunity. I learned that lesson the hard way during the summer of 2025 when I battled a particularly nasty outbreak of barber pole worms. It was stressful and humbling. Good genetics helped, but management, monitoring, FAMACHA scoring, and timely intervention with dewormer, B-vitamins, and molasses still mattered.

The experience reinforced something I’ve learned repeatedly in farming: there are no silver bullets. Every breed has strengths, but every farm still requires attentive management.

Are Sheep Really Always Looking for Ways to Die?

If you’ve spent any time around sheep farmers, you’ve probably heard the joke: “Sheep are always looking for ways to die.” I wish I could tell you the joke isn’t funny because it isn’t true.

Unfortunately, sheep can be remarkably talented at finding trouble, getting stuck in electric and wire fences, having no fear of barbed wire, getting in fights with trees, and the list goes on.

I’ve experienced losses on my farm, including animals that died from causes I still can’t fully explain and others that required difficult but necessary culling decisions due to disease. Every livestock producer experiences setbacks eventually, but those moments never get easier.

What I’ve come to appreciate is that successful sheep farming isn’t about preventing every problem. It’s about building systems that allow you to identify issues quickly, make sound decisions, and continuously improve. The learning curve can be steep, but every challenge has made me a better shepherd.

Building Infrastructure for the Long Haul

When I started raising sheep, I wasn’t ready to invest heavily in permanent sheep fencing.

Instead, I began with electric netting. It allowed me to rotationally graze, experiment with paddock layouts, and determine whether sheep were truly going to become a long-term focus of the farm.

The answer became obvious once I eradicated my first disease outbreak that sheep are here to stay.

As my flock has grown and my confidence and shepherding skills have grown alongside it, I’ve begun investing in more permanent infrastructure, including sheep and goat fencing designed specifically for long-term flock management. Good fencing isn’t the glamorous side of farming, but it is one of the best investments I’ve made. I’ll still be rotationally grazing and leveraging electric netting, but in a way that is less labor intensive and with the additional containment of a full perimeter fence.

The more committed I’ve become to sheep, the more important it has become to build infrastructure that supports them, and my sanity, efficiently and safely.

And Perhaps Most Importantly for a Farm Product: They’re Delicious

There is also a simpler reason I raise sheep. Lamb tastes good.

A lot of people assume they don’t like lamb because they’ve only had older mutton or poorly prepared cuts. Properly raised lamb has a mild flavor, excellent texture, and incredible versatility in the kitchen.

Lamb chops have become one of my favorite special meals. Lamb meatballs are also a treat, particularly served in rice bowl form with Greek seasonings. Lamb is rich in protein, vitamins, and minerals while providing a welcome change from the beef-and-chicken-heavy routine many of us fall into.

Raising animals means spending months caring for them before they ever become food. There is something deeply satisfying about serving a meal that began in your own pasture and knowing exactly how it was raised every step of the way.

Why Katahdins Are Here to Stay at Deer Creek Pastures

At the end of the day, Katahdin hair sheep fit my farm remarkably well.

They efficiently utilize the forage I have available. They thrive in a pasture-based system. They reproduce quickly, grow efficiently, and generally handle the challenges of the Southeast better than many alternatives. They helped make livestock farming feel accessible when I was just getting started, and they continue to teach me new lessons every season.

The journey has included plenty of mistakes, a few heartbreaks, and more than one moment where I’ve questioned my sanity. That’s farming.

But despite all of that, when I look across a pasture full of grazing sheep and bouncing lambs, it’s hard to imagine Deer Creek Pastures without them. If you’d like to learn more about why I chose sheep, or if they’re the right fit for your freezer (or your farm), don’t hesitate to leave me a comment!