Years ago when I dreamed of living on a farm I spent a lot of time pouring over farm related books. I decided pretty quickly that I wanted sheep. I then spent a lot of time reading all of the books I could find on sheep at our local library.
By the time we moved to our homestead, I already knew that I wanted Romney Sheep! Within months, we had our first four.
Text Book version of Romney Sheep:
-Dual Purpose Breed
-Docile Sheep
-Originated from the Marshy Areas of Kent in England
-Do well on Pasture
-Lustrous fleece
-Finest fiber diameter of the Long Wool Breeds
-One of the heaviest wool producers of all sheep breeds
-cutest lambs, ever! My personal opinion :)
Since I have started spinning I can really appreciate their wool! I think it is a great fiber for beginners! I am excited that we will once again have Romney wool available on the farm.
My oldest daughter loves to go out and visit with them. She always held a little bit of a grudge when we decided to settle with just one breed to simplify things, and we chose the Border Leicester.
We are now back in her good graces, as far as the sheep go!
Oh they are very pretty sheep and the wool sounds wonderful. Good to have your daughter back in your graces:) B
ReplyDeleteOh, I do love Romney fleece!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the lowdown! We shared this with our FB/Twitter readers at homesteadlady.com. Visiting from Clever Chicks blog hop.
ReplyDeleteI can see why you chose that breed. Does having the finest fiber mean that the wool isn't itchy, like merino?
ReplyDeleteMerino is a fine wool breed. So it is finer than the Long Wool breeds (Romney, Border Leicester, Leicester Long Wool, Lincoln etc..)
DeleteMerino shouldn't be itchy?? It can usually be used for products that touch the skin.
Sometimes wool is "itchy" because of some of the wool scouring that is done which uses harsh chemicals. Home grown Merino fiber that is processed at a local fiber mill should be very soft.
Your sheep are really gorgeous. The first fleece I spun was Romney, not my own though.
ReplyDeleteThank you for visiting my blog.
They really are a lovely breed! I like the fact that they have lustrous fleece. Sounds wonderful!
ReplyDeleteHow cool is that.. you're living my wooly dream!
ReplyDeleteThank you for stopping by!!
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