I hate to seem like I'm picking nits, but I feel I've been taken out of context. I was agreeing with Sara's point that shepherds can (and will) manipulate the feeding to produce certain specific characteristics, sometimes (as in the case of the Saxony Merino) to the animal's detriment. I never said that people don't feed their sheep.
The sheep that Judith MacKenzie McCuin was speaking of are Rambouillets, which are considered a "fine" sheep. According to Judith, Italian woolen mills purposefully selected the Rambouillet wool from Montana because the sheep are extremely well-cared for (scientifically balanced feeds, vitamins, etc.), so the wool is strong enough to withstand the stresses of commercial spinning and weaving, yet fine enough to produce fabrics that have the desired hand and drape. In this day and age, I can't imagine wool producers purposefully subjecting their animals to the stresses caused by malnutrition just to obtain a specific wool characteristic. These types of stresses are counterproductive to the continued health of a flock and, by extension, to the production of good-quality wool. Dawn Jacobson http://dtjacobson.blogspot.com/ P.S.--I love the comment about "cracking wee lambs"--I have a mental picture of tiny, Chihuahua-sized sheep running about the yard, daintily nibbling my roses. ;-D dtj On 5/1/07, Angela wrote: > > I wouldnt say those who breed shetlands dont feed them. If we didn't feed > our ewes > over winter they wouldnt be in the middle of producing some cracking > wee lambs for us. To stop mail temporarily mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] with the message: set nomail To restore send: set mail
