[Jacob-list] greasy fleece

[Betty Berlenbach]

I find that the lamb fleeces (first shearing) are very likely to have a harder time staying together.  However, the ewes, being bred, seem to produce more lanolin (or maybe it has nothing to do with breeding, but it seems that being pregnant makes them greasier to me) and there is no problem rolling them for show or just for sale.  They will not stick together like a big ol' border leicester or romney, but my shearing/skirting team regularly picks up the fleece, and tosses it onto the skirting table, where it lands in one piece, ready to skirt.  They then roll it inside out into a ball and bag it up.  And then I sell the fleeces, for between 8-10 dollars a pound, generally sold out by May, though I may have one or two left over to bring to Vermont festival in October.  I will not sell a fleece with more then, oh, 10 pieces of veggie matter in them (which I can generally pick out while skirting), or that has a break.  My friends and I all gather together at each other's shearings and take the wool from the sheep, to the bag, all skirted, weighed and labelled, ready to sell by the time the shearer leaves.  It works out well.  My fleeces run 1-2 pounds for the lambs; 2-4 for the ewes.  My friend Suzie, who has jacobs as well, all descended from Lasseau sheep, has much larger jacobs and she often has 5 pound fleeces on ewes.  A lot depends on bloodlines, fleece type, etc.  Hers tend to be less downy fleece, more "romneyish" so to speak.  She has had a closed flock, basically for 16 years and has bred for this trait and for larger sheep.  My flock is open, my ewes generally all from different flocks, and I change rams regularly, do not line breed.  So, my fleeces are all different.  My thought is that with more variety, you meet the needs of a greater sweep of tastes in fleeces.  It seems to work for me.

Don't be discouraged with one falling apart fleece.  And you CAN pick out second cuts, which I've done or had done, at skirting.  The fleece might well be just fine for handspinning, and someone might value it, simply because as a lamb fleece, it may be softer and finer than a totally together, even ewe fleece.  Perhaps you might just wash it and sell it as washed, separated by color, ready to card.  People want fleece in all stages of readiness to spin.  Or they want it already spun.  Around here, it seems most people want raw fleece in spring, processed and ready to spin in the fall.  Makes sense...washing fleece indoors without the "hammock" to dry it in outside (or whatever one uses) in the late fall is a bit dull.  But in the spring, washing fleeces is a joy and a harbinger of summer to come.  To see the fleeces draped over my hammock outside gets me in a mood to spin.
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