NEW ALBANY — Low wool prices and high shearing costs have led many sheep farmers to add a special breed of woolless sheep to their flocks, raising fears that sheep shearing may become a lost art.
Albany farmer Jan Kostival bought a flock of woolless sheep last month with the intention of raising them to sell their meat. He was drawn to the Katahdin, a breed that grows hair instead of wool, when he learned they were hardy, self-sufficient and, best of all, didn't require costly shearing every year.
"The Katahdin need little hay and little crop land," Kostival said. "They can take care of themselves."
Sheep farming nationwide is on a slight rise after declining significantly over the past decade, according to the American Sheep Industry Association. The sheep herd fell from about 8 million in 1997 to 6.1 million in 2004, then edged up to 6.2 million in 2007. Ohio ranks fourth in the nation for the number of sheep and lamb operations raising the animals primarily for meat and milk. In 2006, there were 3,300 sheep farms in the state, the association said.
And increasingly, Ohio sheep are going woolless.
Katahdin sheep, a popular breed of hair-shedding sheep, were first bred by geneticists more than 30 years ago in north-central Maine, according to the Katahdin Hair Sheep International Web site. There are 100 million hair sheep around the world, or about 10 percent of the world's sheep population.
The decline in woolly sheep has hurt an industry already facing competition from synthetic fibers and the entry of China and other countries into the wool market. Many fear sheep shearing, once a lucrative business in Ohio, is becoming something of an anachronism.
Howard Strode, 83, of Chesterhill, was a sheep shearer for 69 years as part of a family tradition that began with his great-grandfather. As recently as 25 years ago, Strode said, he made a living off shearing, often banking about $100 per day. Strode passed along the practice to his son and grandson, but said shearing has become only part-time work at best.
There are just a few farms in the area that continue to raise woolly sheep, Strode said.
"The breeds have changed so much," he said. "In the last few years they went for more meat and muscle and less emphasis on wool. It's very discouraging."
Here's a picture of the Katahdin (pronounced [kuh-tah-dn]).
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