Saw what? Who are you replying to? Whoever it is, their email didn't show up in my inbox. This is weird. On another list we are currently having a discussion about sheep with a retired New Zealand sheep farmer. *Below are the emails: Gerry .......................................... Peter Frederick wrote: > I saw that. Probably not merino though, too nice and white -- Merino > sheep make TONS of lanolin, and the wool isn't white when they are > sheared, it's tan and VERY greasy (and in the case of a male sheep, > rancid, too). > I'd guess Perendale, nice white and coarse. > At any rate, poor sheepie is much better off! > Peter _______________________________________
*A prized yarn from Australia ---------------------------- A lost merino recalls fatter years when Australia’s wealth was in wool NOT since Australia founded a wool industry almost 200 years ago had the country seen a sheep quite like Chris. When a hiker spotted him in the wild this week near Canberra, the capital, the merino was weighed down with so much wool that he could barely walk. The RSPCA, an animal-welfare charity, adopted and named him, and reckoned him to be aged five or six. He had probably never been shorn. With help from four colleagues Ian Elkins, a champion shearer, relieved Chris of 40kg, an unofficial world record for fleece taken from a single sheep. Chris’s plight accompanied news from Canberra that Australia’s economy grew by just 0.2% between April and June, making for an annual growth rate of 2%, lower than earlier forecasts. So the story of the merino—who, it is thought, strayed from a farmer’s flock—inspired reflections on a bygone era when Australia “rode on the sheep’s back”, and wool underpinned the country’s prosperity. The first sheep arrived on the convict ships to Sydney with which Britain settled Australia in 1788. John Macarthur, an enterprising grandee, initiated the country’s fine-wool industry soon afterwards. He bred an Australian merino by crossing Spanish merinos from South Africa with local flocks. Macarthur was also a co-leader of the rebellion that overthrew William Bligh as governor of New South Wales in 1808. But it is his portrait as a wool pioneer, not a rebel, that featured on Australia’s two-dollar note, from its introduction in 1966 until its replacement by a coin 22 years later. The wool industry helped to settle Australia’s wide, open spaces. Britain bought Australia’s entire clip during the second world war. During the Korean war of 1950-51, America’s demand for wool to clothe its troops sent prices soaring. Families with outback merino flocks became Australia’s richest people. Since then the country’s sheep flocks are thought to have halved in number. Today, its biggest customer for wool is China—though iron ore has overtaken it as Australia’s largest export commodity. Australians continue to flock to agricultural jamborees to watch shearers compete for the fastest shearing times. Clipping an average fleece of 5kg from a sheep shorn once a year usually takes three minutes, says Mr Elkins. His team took 45 minutes to clip Chris’s. Shearing enthusiasts will have had another record in mind: until Chris lumbered into view, a stray New Zealand merino was reported to hold the title for heaviest fleece, at 27kg when it was shorn 11 years ago. http://www.economist.com/news/asia/21663247-lost-merino-recalls-fatter-years-when-australias-wealth-was-wool-prized-yarn-australia ....................................... John (retired sheep farmer) wrote: A sheep like that is called a Hermit Sheep. Most sheep have a strong flock instinct and that is used to mob them up during mustering. A hermit sheep doesn't have that impulse and is happy on his own. Hermits evade mustering and in wild country they can go for a long time without human hand touching them. Usually they accumulate 'dags' (lumps of fecal matter attached to the wool around the backside). This attracts flies that lay their maggots in the skin and the animal dies a horrid death. Also most sheep do not do well with a lot of wool. They are healthier and more mobile with a short fleece. When we bought our sheep property the owner was unable to muster his hermits out for counting. Later when we brought them in ourselves we called them Free Sheep because they had not been counted in the stock purchase figures. The previous record fleece was held by Shrek, a merino from the South Island High Country. Shrek got a lot of publicity and, amazingly, after he was shorn he tamed down very quickly and visited schools and fund raisers, getting much media coverage. When NZ was first settled members of the upper class could get free land provided they could stock it. Many sheep were imported from Australia to meet the demand and the price of sheep set the Aussie landholders up for prosperity. Sheep continued to be the mainstay of the NZ economy until recent times when the wool price dropped due to competition from manmade fibres. John _______________________________________ http://www.okiebenz.com To search list archives http://www.okiebenz.com/archive/ To Unsubscribe or change delivery options go to: http://mail.okiebenz.com/mailman/listinfo/mercedes_okiebenz.com
