The title pretty much sums up the gist of my question (How do you treat fleeces that are meant to be sold?), and I would like to know as much detail about that as possible, but the biggest part of my question has to do with removing the lanolin from a number of fleeces.

I'm also interested in how the fleeces are folded and packed and stored and distributed, and is the return worth the effort involved with a flock of approximately a dozen sheep? And if it is not worth the effort, then what do you do with your fleeces? My Middle-Eastern father-in-law used to bury them, but I'm thinking there's got to be a better answer than that!

-- Leslie A. (lesliea@mm2k.net), December 24, 2001

Answers

You do not necessarily have to treat fleeces.You can sell them "in the grease". Some spinners will just spin from the fleeces or wash them themselves. You should skirt the fleece by removing excessive vegetation and any dung tags and belly wool.To wash and remove the lanolin you have to wash the wool by soaking in hot water with detergent as Dawn and to rinse without any agitation. It may take more than one soaking. Your coop may have info on folding the fleece. If you can get the Paula Simmons book Turning Wool into a Cottage Industry it demonstrates how to fold a fleece.Is it worth the effort. Yes if the fleece is good,strong and clean.Good luck, Terry

-- Terry Lipe (elipe@fidnet.com), December 24, 2001.

The way to harvest the best fleece is to pay attention right from the time of shearing.

This is the way it is done in Australia and NZ and probably the rest of the wool producing areas of the world:

The shearer first removes the belly wool, the wool from around the legs and the short hairy wool around the face and one of the shed hands should be right there with a broom to sweep this all away before the fleece comes off. Needless to say the shearing is carried out on a clean floor, usually wooden.

When the sheep is finished the fleece is lying in a small heap with the cut side uppermost. Someone grasps the fleece by the back legs and bringing their arms together picks up the entire fleece. The fleece is thrown in the air so that it falls on a table entirely spread flat with the cut side down. This is the time to remove any discoloured or dirty wool and of course any bits of vegetation etc.

The sides of the fleece are folded towards the backbone then each end is rolled towards the other. The rolled fleece will have the cut side outermost with the wool from around the backbone to the outside of the roll.

Where large flocks are being shorn the fleeces are packed into rectangular bails of 50 or so fleeces to a bale. A hydraulic or manual press is used to produce a bale of about twice the density possible by hand packing and tramping. The bale will be something like 300 or 500lbs. Intermediate transport stages may see the wool compressed further into twice or even four times the density of the original bale.

I am not aware that any wool producers in NZ attempt to remove the lanolin maybe Don can give us a comment regarding the Australian practice but I think the process is basically treatment with hot water.

Poor quality dirty fleeces are probably worth very little but I wish I had a few clean fleeces of high quality that could find their way into $2,000 Italian suites.

Shearing technique is important as the value of the fleece is influenced by the length of the fibre. Do not allow ANY 'second cuts' of the wool, you might end up with untidy looking sheep but everyone knows the difference between a good haircut and a bad one.**

Incidently, I have read that comtamination is the big issue with serious wool growers. Workers in the shearing sheds have to wear hair nets and there are strict rules about the types of clothes they can wear, also dogs are banned from the shed, all in the quest for pure wool fabrics uncomtaminated by 'alien' fibres.

**About 2 weeks.

-- john hill (john@cnd.co.nz), December 25, 2001.

Can't add anything to what John said, other than that the most extreme measures he talks about I have never heard of, and would only be justified by the finest fleeces - ones of such a quality that only hundreds at most would be produced in the world annually. Normally to my knowledge the highest-quality wool produced in the world comes from Australia (e.g. one bale - 30 fleeces - $100,000), but there may only be a hundred fleeces of that quality annually worldwide. Certainly they will shed sheep full-time, keep coats over the fleece, and feed them special diets; so keeping hair out of the wool makes sense.

-- Don Armstrong (darmst@yahoo.com.au), December 25, 2001.

I have been sleeping on a wool pillow and also a neck roll pillow and they are wonderful!! If you don't sell all your wool, make some pillows. I purchased my from www.shepherdsdream.com. You may want to check out their website and see the wonderful mattresses, pillows etc. that they make. There is nothing like sleeping on these all natural wool products. Very healthy for the body.

-- Anita (atnielsen@egl.net), December 26, 2001.

I've been reading the responses to this question with great interest and agree with most of what has been said. As a spinner of over 12 years and a person who has sold many fleeces, both wool and mohair in all price ranges I'd like to add the following.

Preparing a fleece for market and for hand spinners starts at the moment of birth. Pasture has to be maintained so that it doesn't contain burrs and long vegetation that can get into the fleece and contaminate it. Most of the farmers that I've sold fleeces for, and they also raise fleeces to be sold commercially, have hay feeders that are set lower to the ground to prevent the sheep reaching up and tossing hay over their own back and that of their neighbors. At shearing time, when the best fleeces are selected to sell to handspinners, the shearer heavily skirts the fleece to remove any soiled or stained wool. If your marking the wool commercially this is not so important. Good spinning wool can sell from $1.50 to $12 per lb depending on the breed but most spinners these days, especially with the availability of wool from covered sheep, will only pay top dollar for an outstandingly clean fleece. I support American wool and other fiber producers but have to admit the Australian and N. Zealand fleeces are some of the best in the world and recently contracted a deal with a Australian sheep breeder to bring over 150 lbs of Polwarth into the USA. This was wool raised for commercial purposes but it was premium quality. If your raising a long woolled sheep there is a market for doll hair but again the fiber has to be really clean. I currently buy my Lincoln Longwool and Wenslydale wool at $20 per lb from a California breeder and she sells out as fast as she shears and has the most wonderful, sparkling clean wool. Pat

-- Pat Partida (pprabbit@erinet.com), December 28, 2001.