Hi everyone Well, the discussions on breaks and tenderness just go to show how people's perceptions vary!! DeeDee tells me she wasn't referring to me, by the way, so I apologise :) - I should have sat on my hands. That'll larn me... The 'rise' is triggered by temperature, as the season warms up the rise occurs. It is not confined to primitive breeds. This year for instance we had a cold wet late spring and shearers all over the islands had trouble... Polwarth, Corriedale, Romney, Heinz 57, our Merino X Polwarth, they were all affected. The solution is to wait a bit before shearing, for the weather to warm up, but this isn't possible for contract shearers who are under pressure to work their way through a sea of sheep... Testing for breaks is a standard procedure, you need a normal staple not a few wisps of fibre. This is where disagreements occur. On larger farms here anything with a break is pressed separately to those without, and ewe fleeces are the worst for it. Tender fleeces are those with more than one break. Anyway, back to lurking - life's too short... Rosemary Clive & Rosemary Wilkinson DHF Falklands Dunnose Head Farm Falkland Islands South Atlantic www.falklandwool.com Sign up for our email newsletter! To stop mail temporarily mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: set nomail To restore send: set mail
