What to do with Hair Sheep Wool?

I have repeated this conversation about the sheep a million times. When someone finds out I have sheep, it always goes the same.

Oh, so you sell the wool?

No, they’re hair sheep, they shed their wool, it is of no value.

Oh…. So what do you do with them?

They are a meat crop- lamb, you know?

Oh, I see….

That is usually where a pause occurs. Most people don’t want to think too much about where meat comes from. Or, they’ve just never thought about it before this moment. Or, maybe they prefer to think the meat is a byproduct of something else- loin chops that simply must be eaten as an artifact of the need for producing wool… But to just raise meat solely for the sake of raising meat- for many people, that is something to chew on (no pun intended).

 

Shearing the Devil

Though I primarily raise Katahdin hair sheep, you may recall I own one Jacob ewe. This sheep was kind of a charity case I took on in the winter of 2008, along with three other ewes, from a good friend whose life circumstances had taken a radical shift that caused her to need to simplify and offload some sheep. Unfortunately three of the ewes were killed in a single night by coyotes, so this sole wool sheep remains in my flock! And she needed shearing this week.