Dirty Sheep

[NachoFarm]

Our three sheep are a MESS! They're dingy and covered in bits of straw and burrs and other random foliage. Plus their back ends are gross, not like caked with anything but just dirty from a few loose droppings over the summer. They don't have active scours or anything like that.

We keep dry clean bedding down but they have run of the whole barn and outside 24 hours a day but I'm just wondering, is it normal for them to be so dirty? At this point I don't think we will ever get the fleece clean enough to do much with it. We plan on using sheep coats next year but this year we just let them be. I don't know what else I can do to keep them cleaner, or is it just normal for them to look a mess this time of year?

In the photo, please note the sheep on the far left is not dirty...he's grey.

 

[BrownSheep]

Look normal to me. My sheep are just as bad. The only thing the will be a real pain when it cones to processing are tags and the burrs. The rest will pretty much wash out

 

[Bridgemoof]

Yep they look just like my sheep. Are they Finn sheep? I have some Finns that look just like that and a Shetland that looks like the dark one. I often wonder if my sheep are dirtier than everybody else's sheep, so I'm glads to see yours look the same as mine! Burrs are bad, along with little bits of hay and seed heads that pop, crumbled leaves, so much to pull out. I spend a lot of time picking that stuff out. When you card it a lot comes out, too.

One thing to suggest is, and I don't know if it's possible, is to not put hay down for bedding in the barn. A dirt floor is actually better. Dirt can be washed out, hay has to be picked out. If they are out in a grass pasture during the day, that's okay, too, because live grass doesn't really stick to them like dry stuff.

 

[NachoFarm]

The three "white" ones in front are Finn/Gotland crosses and the dark boy in the back is almost all Gotland. I'm just not sure how to go about washing it all when it comes off in the spring. It's dirt under all that hay but then what do they lay on?

 

[SheepGirl]

They lay on the dirt

When given the choice, my sheep (and my neighbor's flock) preferred to lay in the dirt pens in the barn rather than the bedded pens. Right now my sheep shelter has straw in there, but it's only there to soak up the rain because it washes right in there

BUT I would say your sheep look normal.

 

[NachoFarm]

But what about all the "stuff" they leave behind, the urine would soak in but the rest? We usually just toss more straw down.

 

[SheepGirl]

Urine does soak in, but manure dries up and eventually becomes a part of the dirt as it disintegrates. Manure is solid and pretty dry when it comes out so the only issue with having it there is that it sticks to the fleece occasionally. But it never gets buried in the wool. Also we never cleaned the barn. So what you see in these pictures (I guess they were taken in 2010?) is probably 10-15 yrs worth of manure from a flock of sheep that ranged from 15-40 ewes depending on the year plus their lambs. Here's a picture of my neighbor's barn when the sheep were there:

and here it is when there were no sheep in there

 

[Bridgemoof]

Here you go Nacho, here's a tutorial I just created on washing fleeces. I'm working on a really dirty one right now!
http://www.backyardherds.com/web/viewblog.php?id=5910

 

[finns&fjords]

Here you go Nacho, here's a tutorial I just created on washing fleeces. I'm working on a really dirty one right now!
http://www.backyardherds.com/web/viewblog.php?id=5910

Helpful info, thanks. And yes it's nice to hear that I'm not the only one with dirty wool! My Finns seem so full of vm that I wonder who would ever want their wool?? We get lots of rain here in the Pacific NW and I do use bedding in the barn-I think it'd be wet muck if I didn't.

 

[Southdown]

My sheep always have dirty wool. Yours look good compared to mine. My opinion is it will get sheared off in the Spring. I feel like it's impossible to keep the wool clean unless you put one of those jackets over them. The most annoying thing is cockle burrs because they are difficult to remove. They get hay in the fleece from eating out of their hay feeders. Their rear ends get soiled, but it will be sheared off in the Spring. Lambing makes a mess too. We use straw and hay for bedding. That works well for us. It gets removed, composted, and added to the vegetable gardens.