"The Rise" and Finn wool
Once upon a time... sheep used to shed their wool in the spring. The process that led up to this shedding was called "the rise". The wool would get a thickened area and then a natural break. This allowed early shepherds to remove the wool from the sheep by plucking it off -- called "rooing". The modern or "improved' breeds of sheep have tried and mostly succeeded in breeding away from this trait, so they can shear when they want to rather than when nature dictates. But this trait is still found in some members of landrace or "primitive" sheep breeds.
Wendall is "molting"! He is 69% of the new bloodlines imported from Finland. Because we sheared in April this year, this thickened bit is still on the sheep. He is the only one of my sheep that actually sheds off this retained wool -- well most of it. This photo was taken a couple of months ago, so most of it has grown out and shed off by now. We will give him a little haircut, now that this yucky part is out away from his body.
It is hard to find much information about "the rise" and most references to it on the web are in Shetland Sheep. However, this trait also occurs in Finns. As I get more of the imported bloodlines from the 1998 frozen semen importation throughout my flock -- and presumably my bloodlines become more purely Finnish -- I am seeing this trait more. This year I had three ewes and two rams who did not shear very well despite having good wool.
I need to look back through the notes I took in Finland to see when the people there do their spring shearing. One factor to keep in mind though is that they do not jacket their sheep to preserve the fleeces. To compensate for that and keep the quality of their fleece high, they shear twice a year. (The Finnish Landrace sheep in Finland have really beautiful wool!) The wool clip from the fall shearing is their high quality wool which is used to make yarn and finished products such as socks, hats and sweaters. The wool from the spring shearing has been fouled by chaff from feeding hay etc. This spring clip is either used for other things like felting or is discarded.
When dealing with "the rise" one option is to shear early enough in the year (such as early March in our area) so that you are shearing above the rise. This leaves wool on the sheep which tends to cot up as it grows out -- possibly ruining next year's fleece. This also leaves you with the quandary of having to house sheep for longer indoors because of the cold and wet weather and possibly face the danger of sheep getting ill from the stress of being cold. (I have had this happen in rams and wethers - but not ewes so far.)
Sini is 81% Kainuunharmas (Kainu Grey) bloodlines from Finland and has beautiful wool. But see how the she has more wool left on her back half than on her front half? That is because the shearer was not able to get under the natural thickened area (due to "the rise") and had to shear above it this year. Don't worry, we will fix her up so her fleece for next year is nice.
The alternative is to shear late enough in the year (the latter part of May in our area) so that the thickened area has grown away from the sheep's skin and you are shearing along the natural break in the wool. The drawback here is that there maybe a couple of weeks in which the sheep are quite hot and sitting in front of barn fans all day before shearing if we have a warmer spring. It also means that any ewes bred will need to be "crutched" prior to lambing. This means trimming away the wool on the ewe's belly and rear end to keep her fairly clean during the birthing process and prevent the baby lambs from accidentally sucking on soiled wool when looking for milk.
My shearer has convinced me that I need to try shearing in May next year and that I will get better quality fleeces with less waste left on the sheep. He said that Sandy DeMaster (Finns - though retired from breeding) and Julie Guillette (Shetlands) have both found this to be true. So if you order fleeces from me in 2011, shearing won't be occurring until sometime in late May and fleeces will be shipped out sometime in June depending on how chaotic things are with baby lambs. In the meantime, I am going to clip my "clumpy" sheep to give them a fresh start on growing beautiful fleeces for next year!!
Wendall is "molting"! He is 69% of the new bloodlines imported from Finland. Because we sheared in April this year, this thickened bit is still on the sheep. He is the only one of my sheep that actually sheds off this retained wool -- well most of it. This photo was taken a couple of months ago, so most of it has grown out and shed off by now. We will give him a little haircut, now that this yucky part is out away from his body.
It is hard to find much information about "the rise" and most references to it on the web are in Shetland Sheep. However, this trait also occurs in Finns. As I get more of the imported bloodlines from the 1998 frozen semen importation throughout my flock -- and presumably my bloodlines become more purely Finnish -- I am seeing this trait more. This year I had three ewes and two rams who did not shear very well despite having good wool.
I need to look back through the notes I took in Finland to see when the people there do their spring shearing. One factor to keep in mind though is that they do not jacket their sheep to preserve the fleeces. To compensate for that and keep the quality of their fleece high, they shear twice a year. (The Finnish Landrace sheep in Finland have really beautiful wool!) The wool clip from the fall shearing is their high quality wool which is used to make yarn and finished products such as socks, hats and sweaters. The wool from the spring shearing has been fouled by chaff from feeding hay etc. This spring clip is either used for other things like felting or is discarded.
When dealing with "the rise" one option is to shear early enough in the year (such as early March in our area) so that you are shearing above the rise. This leaves wool on the sheep which tends to cot up as it grows out -- possibly ruining next year's fleece. This also leaves you with the quandary of having to house sheep for longer indoors because of the cold and wet weather and possibly face the danger of sheep getting ill from the stress of being cold. (I have had this happen in rams and wethers - but not ewes so far.)
Sini is 81% Kainuunharmas (Kainu Grey) bloodlines from Finland and has beautiful wool. But see how the she has more wool left on her back half than on her front half? That is because the shearer was not able to get under the natural thickened area (due to "the rise") and had to shear above it this year. Don't worry, we will fix her up so her fleece for next year is nice.
The alternative is to shear late enough in the year (the latter part of May in our area) so that the thickened area has grown away from the sheep's skin and you are shearing along the natural break in the wool. The drawback here is that there maybe a couple of weeks in which the sheep are quite hot and sitting in front of barn fans all day before shearing if we have a warmer spring. It also means that any ewes bred will need to be "crutched" prior to lambing. This means trimming away the wool on the ewe's belly and rear end to keep her fairly clean during the birthing process and prevent the baby lambs from accidentally sucking on soiled wool when looking for milk.
My shearer has convinced me that I need to try shearing in May next year and that I will get better quality fleeces with less waste left on the sheep. He said that Sandy DeMaster (Finns - though retired from breeding) and Julie Guillette (Shetlands) have both found this to be true. So if you order fleeces from me in 2011, shearing won't be occurring until sometime in late May and fleeces will be shipped out sometime in June depending on how chaotic things are with baby lambs. In the meantime, I am going to clip my "clumpy" sheep to give them a fresh start on growing beautiful fleeces for next year!!
How interesting! I haven't seen that in our Finns. Wendall and Sini are absolutely gorgeous sheep.I didn't know you had the Kainu Grey bloodlines. Oh I would luv to have some of those sheep
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We don't coat in the summertime either. Some of our summers are cool but others are very hot. (We are in the very southern part of Wisconsin where it is warmer. But the upside is that we don't have the wolves and bears that they have in Northern Wisconsin!) This has been a hot, humid summer. I won't risk the health of my sheep with wool + coat. This summer my sheep have spent a lot of their time sitting in front of two large barn fans. They go out to graze in the mornings and evenings when it is cool. I jacket my sheep in the fall before we start feeding hay. I have not experienced the rough feeling tips in my wool, the only difference is in the color.
The only downside of not jacketing in the summer months is that I do not bother exhibiting some of my really lovely colored fleeces in the fleece competition at Wisconsin Sheep and Wool. It seems that sun-bleached tips are severely penalized and the same fleece in white (where sun-bleaching doesn't show) will get a much higher score.
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