About Sheep

Sheep are livestock which provide both food and fiber. When sheep are first born, they are considered a lamb. After a year old, sheep are called yearlings. After two years of age, they are called an ewe (female) or ram (male). Sheep are weaned or not given milk once they reach about forty-five pounds or sixty days old.

Sheep are herd animals and are most often allowed to graze in a pasture. Diets can be subsidized by feeding hay, grains, silage, or baleage. When sheep are harvested for protein, the meat from a young lamb is called lamb and the meat from a sheep older than a year is called mutton.

Farmers also use sheep to produce milk. Just like other livestock, sheep milk can be collected to create dairy products such as cheese, yogurt, and ice cream as well as soaps and lotions.

There are two different major classifications of sheep. Wooled and haired. Haired sheep are raised primarily for meat production where wooled sheep are raised for wool, dairy, and meat production. Sheep that grow wool must be shorn or shaved at least once a year. This usually happens in spring.

Through the year, sheep will grow a thick coat which keeps them warm through the winter. In the spring, these coats are shorn off. This helps the sheep stay cool in the summer months as well as clean. If the wool is not shorn, the sheep's coat will continue to grow and can cause many health issues such as overheating and trapping of dirt and waste within the coat which may cause bug and parasite issues.

Sheep are also classified by what kind of wool they grow. There are five different classifications of wool: fine, down, medium, long, and double coated. What type of wool is used depends on the different products that are produced. Wool is used to make many types of fiber products like fine fabrics, hats, gloves, coats, and thick rugs.

After the wool is shorn, it is graded and washed. When washed, lanolin and dirt is pulled out of the wool. Lanolin is an excretion from the sheep's skin that helps condition the coat. Lanolin is used in many skincare and cosmetic products. Wool is dried and then passes through a carder which has a series of teeth that line the wool up into a thick roving. Next, the roving is spun to lock the fibers together in a thread. The thread is wound around a bobbin or a holder. From this step, the wool can be used for many products.

To further refine the yarn, it can be woven. Weaving is when multiple bobbins of yarn are put on a loom. A line of yarn is drawn up and down and a shuttle carrying a single line of yarn is put across the original lines of yarn. As the shuttle moves across, the lines of yarn are drawn up and down alternating each time the shuttle moves across, locking the yarn into a weave. As this process continues a fabric is made.

Trip to the Farm and Fiber Mill

Take a virtual field trip to Orchard View Long Wool Sheep Farm and Battenkill Fiber Mill, a real NY sheep farm and wool mill, to learn how NY sheep are raised, how sheep are cared for, how wool is sheared, and how NY wool is processed into wool yarn here in the Empire State.

Fun Facts

• Wool is good at shedding water and trapping air pockets due to it being a coarser product than other fibers. The air pockets that are trapped within the fabric help to insulate and keep heat in and colder air out.

Sources

• http://blogs.cornell.edu/newsheep/empire-sheep-producers-association/
• http://cceschoharie-otsego.org/4-h-youth-development/schoharie-county-4-h/schoharie-county-4-h-programs/schoharie-county-sunshine-fair/sheep-goats