I meant to reply to this before but everytime i thought id get an hr off more lambs appeared.
Shetland sheep. - The one main thing that has to be pointed out about them is that when you take them away from the area native to them, shetland, north isles, they very quickly loose the super fine fleece & the softness. The breed isnt meant to be on lush pasture & receive over rich feeding over the winter, it evolved to pick a living out of the heathers at the altitudes & constant salt winds we receive in shetland. Our fair isle bred shetlands have fleece that in the 1st & 2nd shearing is akin to silk in its softness and as crimpy as some of the american seriously crimpy breeds. With age the fleece starts to loose its softness & crimp. I look at some of my sheep & see gossamer shawls en foot, you just dont get the low microns from shetlands raised elsewhere, in effect really, the differences are so noticable, that they could be termed as no longer being pure shetlands. Angela Fair Isle Ann McElroy <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: If you go the British wool board http://www.britishwool.org.uk/factsheet1.asp?pageid=94 The places they put breeds is not where we would but them. I don't know if the reads are different in Britten as it is very difficult to import animals into England so often the same bread is very different in England than it is here. I only know this from dog breads. But I imagine it is similar with other animals. The other thing is when was the book originally printed or updated. Reprinted is not updated. Unfortunately just because it is still in print and used as a reference does not mean it is up to date. I have one that the bread descriptions are not what I know so I checked and though it is still in print the book was originally printed in 1932. That is a long time in animal breeding. I think looking up the breed group from your own country. I know they are somewhat biased but are at least more up to date. A lot depends on opinion. In a resent book I was reading, written by someone in one of the northern European countries, she is of the opinion that the only wool that makes good felt is wool from double coated bread. That eliminates most breeds of sheep. Ann Shepherds' Spring Farm North Gower On. Canada -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Holly Sent: April 28, 2007 8:10 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: Spin Off survey: Shetland = a down breed? Grace writes: < as a "down breed," and omits Dorset, Shropshire and Suffolk>> Yes, I was annoyed by that, too--plus doesn't seem to me that Black Welsh *Mountain* is going to be a Down breed, and I'm not real sure Cheviot really fits in that category, either. Clearly, they got the examples straight from In Sheep's Clothing, which didn't know where to put Shetland, at least, with its variability. Ironically for Shetland, Down-type wool is the type LEAST likely and desirable, and the sample pictured is clearly a primitive-type staple. Shows how powerful the marketing for Shetland is in the UK, that it wasn't placed in the primitive chapter of the book. Is there someone who really knows Down breeds as they were, say, 100 years ago, in England? In my experience, which is limited, they're always pretty short--3" and under--very crimpy, and very 'crisp', which seems to be something of a euphemism for coarse and crimpy :) Of course, it's marvelous wool for quilt batts, blankets, and anything needing tremendous springiness without a risk of felting. None of which describes 99.9% of Shetland wool. We had *one* ram we bought for his coloring (he was born spotted and with patches of milky brown and pewter gray on a white ground) who had Down-type wool--as an adult, it was indistinguishable from Suffolk. We used him for a couple years, then 'got rid of him' because of the wool type. I've never seen another sample of Shetland anything like that wool, in 9 years of breeding and looking at others' Shetland sheep and wool. Holly with lambing over, and 13 Shetland lambs running around out of 7 ewes--gray, moorit, musket, and white, one musket spotted or patterned--why it's always the muskets and grays that are spotted, I can't say, but it means that by the end of the first year you'd never know they had been born spotted www.fairislefibres.blogspot.com Bed & Breakfast upon the Isle of Fair Isle www.burklecrafts.co.uk High quality hand dyed spinning fibers www.fairislefibers.co.uk To stop mail temporarily mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: set nomail To restore send: set mail
