Just differences in individual sheep when it comes to wool. My white and red-speckled Kat in the pic has a full, very fine and very soft coat of wool in the winter that sheds off in great sheets that have an undercoating of buttery lanolin. She is a purebred Kat.
My mostly black sheep in the pic, Black Betty, sheds in clumps and has a much worse quality of wool. Mostly hair fibers and coarse wool like a woolen carpet that grows only on her torso and neck.
The Ugly Betty sheep, the spotted one, only got some low quality wool on her shoulders and haunches but would have a very full coat of hair. I believe it was the St. Croix in these last two that contributed to the poor wool quality....which is pretty much desired in hair breeds, BTW.
Here's a pic of these three at the end of winter and beginning of spring:
My mostly black sheep in the pic, Black Betty, sheds in clumps and has a much worse quality of wool. Mostly hair fibers and coarse wool like a woolen carpet that grows only on her torso and neck.
The Ugly Betty sheep, the spotted one, only got some low quality wool on her shoulders and haunches but would have a very full coat of hair. I believe it was the St. Croix in these last two that contributed to the poor wool quality....which is pretty much desired in hair breeds, BTW.
Here's a pic of these three at the end of winter and beginning of spring:
