A
Brief History of the Katahdin Breed
Katahdin are a breed a hair sheep developed in
the United States. They originated at the Piel
Farm in north central Maine where Michael Piel
was an innovator and "amateur geneticist".
He began making inquiries about hair sheep after
seeing pictures in a National Geographic of West
African hair sheep which he would later import
for crossbreeding. He mixed Cheviots, Suffolks
(with the help of LSU), and many others to try
and produce the lamb he was looking for.
In the early 1970s, Piel felt he had come close
to his goal of a "meat sheep that did not
require shearing." He called them Katahdin sheep
after Mt. Katahdin, the highest peak in Maine.
In October 1975, Piel imported a handful of
Wiltshire Horn sheep from Wales via Canada. The
first crosses were born in 1976. The crossing
continued even after his death in December of
1976 with Barbara Piel.
