shearing
A joint effort in lots of ways
The photo was taken by a London company (Dashing Tweeds) that John (my partner) was working with to produce cloth from the wool from his own sheep. They sent him the low resolution photos (for choice).
Just for fun, we worked on this low res photo together (me editing with input from John who also chose the DDG styles). The focus on the face isn't great, and I would have preferred to leave the grey hairs there (but that's not a great look for a sheep)
John had chosen the image as an example of a perfect shearing position (he did some time shearing in New Zealand). I would have cropped its legs off, but apparently this was the important bit ... having those legs in the air. He did also explain about the position of his own legs pushing the sheep into place ... it did get more technical than I can remember!
I suggested that it looked like an old sheep that would be used to being sheared, so would just go with the flow, but apparently sheep don't think that way, and would still kick if given the chance.
I have always wondered about the timing of shearing (a bit odd right in the middle of Summer, why not at the beginning etc). Apparently it's all to do with the natural timing of the wool growth. As the new fleece begins to grow, last years fleece fibres break and are pushed away by the new ones, creating a bit of a gap. This gap is where the fleece is sheared.
I asked about the sheep walking around with half their fleece missing (before being sheared), which is due to the fibres breaking earlier than they should for a variety of reasons.
I hope you found this interesting. Farming (like most things) is a lot more complicated than it appears.
I've put the original image and a photo of the final cloth in the first comment box
shearing
A joint effort in lots of ways
The photo was taken by a London company (Dashing Tweeds) that John (my partner) was working with to produce cloth from the wool from his own sheep. They sent him the low resolution photos (for choice).
Just for fun, we worked on this low res photo together (me editing with input from John who also chose the DDG styles). The focus on the face isn't great, and I would have preferred to leave the grey hairs there (but that's not a great look for a sheep)
John had chosen the image as an example of a perfect shearing position (he did some time shearing in New Zealand). I would have cropped its legs off, but apparently this was the important bit ... having those legs in the air. He did also explain about the position of his own legs pushing the sheep into place ... it did get more technical than I can remember!
I suggested that it looked like an old sheep that would be used to being sheared, so would just go with the flow, but apparently sheep don't think that way, and would still kick if given the chance.
I have always wondered about the timing of shearing (a bit odd right in the middle of Summer, why not at the beginning etc). Apparently it's all to do with the natural timing of the wool growth. As the new fleece begins to grow, last years fleece fibres break and are pushed away by the new ones, creating a bit of a gap. This gap is where the fleece is sheared.
I asked about the sheep walking around with half their fleece missing (before being sheared), which is due to the fibres breaking earlier than they should for a variety of reasons.
I hope you found this interesting. Farming (like most things) is a lot more complicated than it appears.
I've put the original image and a photo of the final cloth in the first comment box