Fleece is a cover of wool taken from a sheep

2024 Author: Howard Calhoun | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 10:16

Many farms raise sheep. The popularity of these animals is due to the fact that they are very productive and provide farmers not only with meat, milk and fat, but also with wool. Usually farmers choose a breed depending on the weather conditions in the region, but often their choice falls on meat and wool sheep. The decisive factor is the opportunity to obtain high-quality fleece, which promises farms great benefits. Sheep's wool is readily bought by enterprises engaged in the manufacture of carpets and woolen clothing.

What is a fleece and its types

Fleece is a woolen cover obtained in the form of a whole layer when shearing a sheep. Its quality depends on the breed and the conditions in which the sheep are kept. It consists of individual tufts or braids of wool that cling tightly to each other.

According to the technical characteristics, the fleece is divided into three types:

• Staple fleece. Its structure consists of bundles with fibers of the same length, thickness and fluff. Such bundles are called staple. You can see them if you carefully push them apart.sheep wool. The formation of a staple fleece is facilitated by small defector hairs, as well as grease from the skin of a sheep and soiled wool. From such a rune, the highest quality fine wool is obtained.
• Pigtail fleece. It is formed by braids with fibers of different lengths. Has a heterogeneous structure. Pigtails may contain fluff, awn, dry or dead hair. A braided fleece is a coarser woolen cover, at the base of which lies a dense layer resembling felt, so individual braids are not visible in it.
• Staple-braid fleece. The composition has bundles of different lengths and thicknesses of fibers, but at the same time retains a homogeneous structure. Used to make semi-fine wool.

Depending on the type of fleece, sheep breeds are divided into fine-wooled, semi-coarse-wooled and coarse-wooled.

Fine wool breeds of sheep

The highest quality staple fleece is produced by a fine-fleeced sheep. It is easy to distinguish by its appearance. Sheep wool has a light, almost white color, a uniform composition and almost always consists of one fluff. The wool coat has cute curls, the fiber diameter is no more than 0.25 micrometers, and its length reaches 9 cm.

Representatives of fine-fleeced sheep are Soviet and Australian merinos, prekos, Kazakh fine-fleeced, Ascanian, Caucasian and Siberian rambouliers, as well as some other types of sheep. Their wool contains a lot of grease, so after hot washing, 20-50% of the pure product from a shear from one sheep remains.

Sheep shearing dates

Timely haircut is one of the main conditions in order to get a good fleece, the farmer must take this into account. If the terms of the haircut are not observed, the losses can be up to 50% of the cut. In fine-wool sheep, wool grows only 1 cm per month, they are sheared once in the spring. In semi-coarse-haired and coarse-haired animals, the monthly growth of wool is up to 3 cm, they are cut in spring and early autumn. The Romanov breed of sheep, whose wool grows quickly and falls off so that its further processing becomes very complicated, is also sheared in summer.

The farmer determines the timing of the shearing on his own, depending on when the warm weather sets in so that the naked sheep do not catch a cold. But you should not linger with a haircut either, because in the heat the animals lose their appetite, they lose weight, and their coat is heavily soiled. In addition, in the summer, sheep begin to shed, during which you can lose valuable sheep down, so it is better to do a haircut in May or June. It is at this time that the best fleece is obtained. The weight of the fleece and its quality depend on the thickness of the coat, the size of the animal, the degree of overgrowth, as well as the presence of skin folds on the body.

The second haircut for coarse-haired and semi-coarse-haired breeds is done in August or September. It must not be late with it, because before the onset of cold weather, animals must grow hair.

Sheep shearing methods

Sheep are sheared by hand or machine. With the manual method, special scissors for shearing sheep are used. Although this option takes a lot of time, scissors remain the most reliable tool.for a haircut. They are less prone to breakdowns than electric machines, are easy to use and last for many years. Due to low productivity, scissors are used in small farms.

The machine method greatly accelerates the shearing of sheep and facilitates the work of workers. In addition, when machine shearing, a better quality fleece is obtained. This is achieved by the fact that the workers use special combs that fit snugly against the skin, so the fleece is much longer. In large farms, the machine method is used more often than shear shears.

Cut order

Sheep are prepared in advance for shearing. To prevent the wool from being smeared with animal excrement, the day before the procedure, they are not fed or given water for 12 hours. In addition, well-fed animals are less likely to tolerate a haircut.

Fleece, taken in one layer, is valued more, so they try to shear the whole sheep. First, the head and neck are freed from wool, then the chest, groin and stomach. Lastly, the fleece is removed from the sides and back. Shearing the queens is done very carefully so as not to damage the nipples of the animal. After the hair is removed, the skin of the animals is treated with a disinfectant solution.

To keep wool better, it is washed in soapy water, rinsed well and dried. The prepared fleece is folded correctly. To do this, 1/3 of the rune is bent on both sides to its middle, and then folded in half again. Store wool in a dry place.