on 19/1/01 5:47 pm, Dee Dee Williams at [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
I've always been told that the outer coat
> is what protects the sheep's soft inner coat, enabling it to live on the
> cold, chilly, cold, freezing, cold Shetland Islands.
>
> The upshot of is that now I'm even more confused, as now I'm told that the
> outer coat grows back, after it's sheared. !pleh
Confusing that is sheep for you ...
Hi .. first Shetland is not so cold! but many many days it rains and it is
windy ....
The sheep we saw on Shetland had fleeces similar to our own ... well we have
a dozen at least which were bornon Shetland and have had several rams from
Shetland too ... our foundatin flock did also brring in feamle lines from 12
flocks in England .. all the way from the NE of England down to the far SW.
Our own flock produces dense fine fleeces and they are single coat ...
We find that the first fleece may have more colour at the tips and on first
shearing we see what the fleece is really going to be like. Colour
genetics of Shetlands is complex and there are effects seen in the lambs
coat at birth which can be very confusing (beyond me most it)
Holly said
> Of course, wool generally coarsens with age,
We see more variation between sheep than in the fleece of one sheep as it
ages .. I had a display of fleeces from 1year old through 3 nad 5 to 9 and
10 year old sheep at our big spinners meet last Oct ... folkwere amazed at
what you can get of a good sheep as she ages ...
BTW our 1997 Royal Highland Show Champion ram (Galtress Blyth) produced the
Champion Shetland fleece at the National S&S in 1996 as a first fleece and
then his fifth fleece was Champion Shetland and Reserve Best in Show at both
the Great Yorkshire Showw 2000 and The Royal Highland Show 2000 (two very
different judges too) HIs sire has gone to Shetland ..
Robin
--
Robin and Margaret McEwen-King, Middletown Farm, Nemphlar, Lanark ML11 9JD.
Scotland.
Take a look at our website .. sheep fleeces shows and pigs too...
http://www.mcewen-king.co.uk
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