Katunsky breed of sheep that do not need to be sheared: description and characteristics

"Weight like a ram" - that's what they say about a thin person, whose weight does not exceed 45-50 kg. That's how much ordinary sheep weigh. The exception is the Katun meat breed of sheep. Males of this breed weigh more than 100 kilograms. They were bred specifically for meat, not wool, and were sometimes called Katunsky by the people. Although it is necessary to pronounce Katumsky correctly. The name of the sheep was given by the Katumy breeding farm.

History of the breed

Work on breeding meat sheep with good weight gain was carried out in Tatarstan, where by 2013 Karmalinskaya, she is Nizhnekamsk, she is Tatar, sheep was obtained.Males weighed about 90 kg. However, in 2022-2023 there was a presentation of a new breed, the weight of males exceeded 100-110 kilograms. They called the breed Katumskaya.

At the beginning of the 21st century, the Katuma farm, which specialized in animals of the Romanov breed, began breeding work to breed meat breeds of sheep. It had to meet a number of characteristics. The main ones were good stable weight gain, high meat productivity and the absence of long wool, which had to be cut regularly. This is due to an increase in the cost of the shearing process and a drop in demand for sheep's wool and skins.

Specialist in breeding Lebed O. S. seriously approached the issue of selecting parental pairs for the new breed. 20 heads of breeding short-haired rams of the Katahdin breed were brought from North America. Local sheep of the Romanov breed were used as breeding stock. They have already been adapted to the climatic conditions of the northwestern region of Russia.A new breed was obtained by absorbing crossbreeding and hard culling. In 2022-2023, it was registered as a meat breed of sheep with short natural wool.

Description and characteristics of Katum sheep

Animals of both sexes are distinguished by a strong barrel-shaped body with well-developed muscles. The body is covered with coarse short hair. With the onset of autumn, an undercoat appears, which disappears during the spring molt. The color is light fawn or brown, with various spots, most often white and red. The muzzle, front and hind legs do not have rune hair. The head is small, the profile is straight. The ears are semi-erect, both the female and the male have no horns.

The live weight of adult rams is 100-130 kilograms, growth at the withers reaches 80-90 centimeters. Brights weigh up to 80 kilograms, their height is 70-80 centimeters.

Main positives and negatives

The breed has numerous positive characteristics:

precocity;
strong immunity;
gaining mass even on poor feed;
rapid growth of young animals, monthly lambs weigh up to 12-15 kg;
high fertility, mostly twins and triplets;
all the forces of the body are spent on growth and weight gain, and not on long thick hair;
no need to cut, shedding takes place naturally, which does not require additional physical and material costs;
no pronounced seasonal cyclicity in sexual behavior;
rams recover very quickly after intensive matings;
calm, phlegmatic character;
high slaughter yield of meat, it is 53-59%.

The biggest advantage of the breed is considered to be tasty and he althy meat. Its characteristics do not change with the age of the animal. It does not have a specific lamb taste and is similar to veal. Even the best breed has flaws. The disadvantages of the Katun sheep are:

heterogeneous, in terms of genetics, livestock;
approximately 5% of livestock are culled for black coat color and horn buds;
in the warm season they need a high grass stand.

Despite the fact that the breed has been officially registered, the traits of Romanov sheep may appear in the offspring. Therefore, work on improving the livestock continues

Nuances of maintenance and care

Sheep of the Katun breed tolerate both heat and cold well. As a rule, they build a windproof barn for the winter, in a place well lit by the sun, and a corral of three walls with a canopy for the summer.

Important! Animals can be kept on a sand cushion. It is removed together with manure and feed residues once a year using a tractor. After that, the walls are whitewashed and a new layer of sand is poured up to 80 centimeters high.

Sand lets everything through and traps odor. The procedure for updating the pillow is carried out in the summer, when the herd is grazing.

Diet

In the cold season, the main diet of Katun sheep is high-quality hay. It should always be in animal feeders. In the summer, animals eat green grass in pastures. Despite the fact that sheep prefer to choose grass that is tastier, in lean years they can graze in areas with poor herbage and keep weight gain at the level stated in the breed characteristics.

S alt slime must be in the diet. It is advisable to add to the menu of animals, especially in winter, a small amount of grain and feed. Nursing queens require slightly more grain than sheep at other times of life.

In the diet of animals of the Katum breed, you can add silage, vegetables, mineral supplements. It is useful to give swill from steamed feed, boiled vegetables. They need water at least twice a day, in winter the water is heated.

Animal breeding

Animals of the Katum breed reach puberty at 16-20 weeks. You can start mating if the weight of the queens exceeds 70% of the weight of an adult animal. A month before this, the animals begin to be well fed, including vitamins and mineral supplements in the diet. The mating is usually carried out in a free way. Some farms use frozen sperm, and a month later, the presence of a fetus is determined using ultrasound.

The gestation period lasts about 150 days. After that, one, two, or even three lambs are born. It is important to ensure that the first food for them is maternal colostrum.

Diseases and their prevention

Sheep of the Katum breed are resistant to hoof diseases, they are rarely subjected to helminthic invasions. They got strong immunity to the main diseases of sheep from American katadins.

Animals of this breed should be systematically checked for the presence of skin parasites. To prevent diseases, sheep must be vaccinated. Diseases are the most dangerous:

Hemorrhagic enteritis or enterotoxemia, type C - the disease affects young animals during the period of transfer from mother's milk to other feeds, timely vaccination is effective.
Tetanus - dangerous for animals during the period of castration, other operations and wounds, vaccination is carried out to prevent.

Breeding area

The first territory where they began to breed Katum sheep was the Leningrad region. Here, meat sheep are bred in the Boksitogorsk, Vsevolzhsky, and Priozersk regions. Today, breeding animals are sold to other regions. Sheep breeders of foreign countries, including England, have also shown interest in this breed.