I'm woolin' it!

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Coated lamb.

Bizarre grey stripe!

Two whole fleeces tossed during shearing. Pictured. One whole fleece tossed during skirting, two back tops of fleeces, rest all regular skirtings. A pile as tall as my sheep!

The VM on the back of some sheep. And shows shortness in this area, too. I tossed these sections.

Lamb fleece. VM on tips and then clean when coated! See how much it helps?

 

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Kitty napping by the nicer Corriedale skirting. I've seen some people give this away, so going to try that. With work, it will be real nice.

Kibito's fleece.

 

[Roving Jacobs]

I've seen banding like that in flocks with diagnosed copper deficiency. Since it went back to black it was probably a temporary issue that you resolved without even knowing it. Some individual sheep, especially black ones, seem to need more copper or are more sensitive to things blocking copper than others.

 

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I've seen banding like that in flocks with diagnosed copper deficiency. Since it went back to black it was probably a temporary issue that you resolved without even knowing it. Some individual sheep, especially black ones, seem to need more copper or are more sensitive to things blocking copper than others.

Interesting!
He's the only one I've ever seen do this. He was fine last year and was used as a stud.
Only time they don't have mineral access is Oct/Nov, since they're split into breeding groups w/o sturdy shelter to have loose minerals protected from rain.
Could a plant cause lack of ability to absorb copper or something?

 

[Roving Jacobs]

I don't know about plants but the main things I know that interfere with copper absorption are molybdenum, sulfur, and iron. I have a lot of sulfur and iron in my water so my sheep get way more copper in their minerals than I would ever advise anyone else to give.

Their website seems to be down but there was a romeldale breeder with recurrent banding in some of their fleeces and they tied it to a rusting galvanized tub the sheep were drinking out of whenever they were in a specific pasture. Whenever they would be in that pasture some would become copper deficient and when they were moved to the next one it would correct itself so there were distinct bands in the fleece every so often.

 

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Started washing Kibito's fleece. Doing smaller batches at a time. Stained tips are neck wool.

 

[Bruce]

Do you wash in hot water?

 

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Do you wash in hot water?

I've tried both, cold soaks, then hot, doesn't help any with stains. So, I hot soak for dirt n lanolin, 2x at least, then a hot soak w/detergent and last a hot soak as a rinse.

 

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Lots more to go...

 

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Dang Sycamore tree!!