History of the Katahdin Breed Katahdin sheep are a breed of hair sheep developed in the United States, a small but growing element of the sheep industry in North America. There are 100 million hair sheep around the world—10% of the world’s sheep population—of which 90% are in Africa and 10% are in Latin America and the Caribbean. The Katahdin breed originated at the Piel Farm in north central Maine where Michael Piel was an innovator and “amateur geneticist” who enjoyed raising livestock. His first intentions related to establishing a sheep enterprise were to use sheep to graze power lines instead of spraying or mowing the vegetation. He then developed other ideas on how to employ sheep for land management.    More....