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@*tippy*toes* wrote:

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@chameleon54 wrote:

I actually visited the Appledores farm many years ago and was shown around their fine wool shedded sheep. It was a very simple operation, set up in a dissused shearing shed and made out of recycled materials. The Saxon / Merino sheep where all whethers and fed the same food ration twice a day at the same time.  Each sheep was individually penned and they had the radio playing clasical music as they believed it kept the sheep calm and content....    Everything had to be very consistent to ensure no breaks in the tensile strength of the wool and the wool they produced was absolutely magic stuff. All up a very interesting excercise.

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That's interesting because superfine wool usually comes from "stressed" sheep. That is why superfine breeders will often run them on steep hills. They don't physically stress them out, but roaming on the hills stresses them enough to make the wool finer.

 

My oldest Merino got so sick about 6 years ago, he almost died. Severe lactic acidosis, which triggered a Barberpole explosion. None of the vets believed he survived (6 weeks of very intensive care on my part, around the clock). The results were, his wool broke off and fell out.,.....just what he needed in June! I'm talking pink skin bald.

 

When his new wool grew, it was the finest anyone had ever seen. They estimated 11-12 micron. After that, it stayed superfine, but around 14 micron. These days his wool doesn't grow as long due to advanced age, but the wool broker loves it!

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Its true that stress will trigger sheep to produce finer wool, particularly drought. This type of wool is called " hunger fine " but it comes with the risk of low tensile strength or " breaks " in the wool. A break is when the wool develops a small very weak area throughout the fleece. This is what caused your sheep to lose its wool all together. Breaks in the wool are a no no for the high end market as they need even tensile strength to produce the best fibre. 

The Appledores noted in the link tested many hundreds of whethers from a commercial fine wool Saxon / Merino producer and then paid him a premium to buy the finest wooled sheep in his flock. These where then fed a moderate diet that kept them in reasonable condition, without being fat. This contributed to the fineness of the wool and the even diet ensured tensile strength.. The next step in producing the million dollar bale was to only use the wool from the front and rear legs and lower sides of the sheep as this is usually finer than the backs and neck wool. They only had a few hundred shedded sheep so it took some time to accumilate enough wool to make a bale. The sheep also wore coats to keep the wool free from dust. The Appledores farm in one of the dryer parts of the Wimmera and dust can be a problem.