sheep question:)

[cgjsmith]

How do I keep there whool somewhat clean my sheep are a mess they have seeds in them and at their leg bases ther is abunch of natted up whool? is there a brush to use will it get easier once the whool is longer. thanks Crystal

 

[MandyH]

Mine looked the same way til I sheared them. Then all that crap had a chance to fall off. I was exoecting to see small saplings growing off them before I got them all sheared.

 

[sunnychooks]

If you want the wool for spinning, the best you can do is to try to keep them away from brush and brambles. There are blankets that show people use to keep their sheep clean for competitions, but I would not suggest them in the warm weather. DO NOT try to brush them because it might ruin the crimp of the fleece and if the sheep get wet the fleece could felt. When you shear them you will want to skirt the fleece (cut away all the edges that are short and/or dirty). If you want to card it by hand you will have to pick out any tags (sheep poop that's stuck to the fleece) or other foreign matter that's stuck to the fleece. I find it easier to send the raw fleece to a wool mill where they will clean it and process it into roving by machine.

 

[henjoy]

It is a bit difficult to keep VM (vegetable matter--the stuff you don't want) out of fleeces, but one thing that helps is not to feed your sheep so that hay and chaff can fall out onto them. If they eat over each other they can get lots of stuff in their wool. Are they on pasture? Usually they stay pretty clean if they are only grazing and not being fed hay. How many sheep do you have and what breed? I have a flock of about 60 Shetland sheep and they don't have leg wool so I don't have to deal with that, but I imagine that leg wool is like belly wool and not too useful anyway. Jackets do keep wool clean and also from bleaching from the sun, but sometimes you need to have several sizes to accomodate size changes as wool grows so that it doesn't felt from being compressed. Do you have plans for this wool? If not, as someone already said, the bad stuff will be gone when you shear them. Hope this helps.