[Jacob-list] To keep or not to keep - my little Jacob sheep

[Dan Carpenter]

Between Christmas 1999 and New Years I picked up a lilac ram from Laurie
Foster in Arkansas.  When I first saw him I thought that I was being shown
the wrong sheep because the sheep I was seeing had no visible color
whatsoever on his fleece-it looked pure white.  Laurie, assuring me that he
was just sun bleached, parted his wool and showed me the lilac color
underneath.  This ram never looked white again here in Michigan.

 

-Dan

 

From: jacob-list-bounces at jacobsheep.com
[mailto:jacob-list-bounces at jacobsheep.com] On Behalf Of Linda
Sent: Sunday, July 11, 2010 7:52 PM
To: nlgrose at yadtel.net
Cc: jacob-list at jacobsheep.com
Subject: Re: [Jacob-list] To keep or not to keep - my little Jacob sheep

 

That's interesting. I have/had very few sheep that don't sunbleach and
really very few that hold their color well and fleece is one thing I select
for (not the only thing, of course). I have owned few deep black, non
sunbleaching, non fading, non graying, sheep with finer fleeces.

For the last two years, I've purchased fleeces from Gary and Dianne Anderson
in Michigan. The Hillside flock has sheep with deep black, unsunbleached,
soft fleeces. I don't know if that has to do with the fact that we get more
sun here in the south or the fact that the Hillside flock is from lines
across the country from our southern sheep. I haven't seen the same color
retention, non sunbleaching, fine fleeces in sheep I've purchased from other
northern flocks.

I'd be interested in hearing more on this topic from breeders in different
parts of the country.

Linda

ROY NEAL GROSE wrote: 

One consideration that you might want to look at is the fineness of the
wool. In our experience, in our flock, the finer wools are the ones that
became brown when exposed to sunlight. This makes some sense...the sun
would discolor the fiber a few mirons deep, and those thicker fibers
would not show evidence of this as readily.
 
Neal Grose
 
  

 

-- 
Patchwork Farm Jacob Sheep <http://www.patchworkfibers.com>  

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