On my way to do the grocery shopping I dropped in on friends who were shearing. The "Boss" on that place has informed me in the past that I need to show "the good sheep" on this blog. So here are the Halfbreds (and I beg to differ about which are the best). Although have to agree that the mid-micron wool of the Halfbred is better than that of the Perendale. The wool is used for quite different purposes - mid-micron is used more in clothing and blankets, and fantastic for knitting yarn; whereas the perendale wool is coarser, so more for rugs and carpets, although the finer and coarser ends of both breeds can overlap in uses.
Here are the Halfbred ewes, note their ears are set quite differently to the Perendale. They don't move anywhere as fast either! But to be fair are much better in the yards - they don't jump like ours!!
The "girls" are looking good as they come out of the shed after being shorn. They will start lambing about middle to end of September. This is "pre-lamb shearing", and hopefully means they will lamb in shelter, and they won't get cast like our ewes do with their full-fleece. This farm has more shelter and doesn't get the snow we get, which is why they shear earlier. They can also grow more specialist feed to really feed the ewes after shearing if it does get cold. They are shorn (as ours are even in December) with a cover-comb, which leaves more wool on than a conventional shearing comb, and this helps keep them warmer. And as well as keeping them warmer I think it helps prevent sunburn when they are shorn in Summer as ours are.
 |
| Belly crutched ewe |
 |
| See what I mean about the way the ears are different - Those perendale ears are much perkier (don't miss a thing)!! |
 |
| Half-bred wool - each fibre is smaller in diameter than the cross bred, and a lot more little crinkles (crimp) in each staple |
 |
| Perendale (crossbred) wool |
No comments:
Post a Comment