We do not have a very large farming operation, so I tend to want to refer to it as small or little or otherwise try to ensure no one gets the mistaken idea that we are “real” farmers. I always seem to have this image in my mind of a farm being over a hundred acres with hundreds of head of stock or hundreds of acres of crops that is a full-time job with no need for the farmer to have to work off the farm.

The 2017 Census of Agriculture was released recently. It turns out that over 273,000 farms are under 10 acres – over 13% of all farms in the US. Also, about 60% of farmers have jobs where they work off the farm as least 1 day a year, and around 40% of farmers work off the farm at least 200 days a year.

Both of us have full time jobs outside of our little farming operation. I am fortunate to have a job with a somewhat flexible schedule that allows me to adjust my hours when necessary when I need to take a lamb to the vet or leave work to rush home if I notice a ewe or lamb in distress on my “lamb cam.”  

Our operation is small compared to many, but I was having a conversation with someone recently about my sheep and lambs that made me see things from a bit of a different perspective. She asked how much land we had, so I told her that we only have about 8 acres and her eyes got wide and she sort of laughed because to her, 8 acres is a lot.

If you have livestock, it is a 365 day a year commitment even if you only have a few. You need to ensure that there is always fresh water and hay or pasture available. It is also important to keep an eye on your stock to ensure that they are healthy -the more watchful you are, the more likely you are to notice if something is wrong. Just the other day, we noticed that some of the rams seemed to be fighting and just not quite acting right. Once I went out to investigate, I found that one of our ewes had managed to get into the ram pen somehow. I managed to round her up and get her out of there and things settled back down to normal. Any vacation or extended trip must be planned for ahead and a “farm sitter” must be found.   

I also found some interesting information in the Census of Agriculture about sheep farming. By far, the largest number of sheep farms (about 70,000) have 1 to 24 animal and the second largest group has 25-99 animals with about 24,000 farms. Only around 6800 farms have over 100 sheep. I was somewhat surprised to find that our operation is bigger than most sheep farms -we have over 25 sheep.

I guess our “little” operation may not be as small as I thought it was. Do you have any thoughts or opinions on what is a “real” farm?

This is the busiest time of year here at our little farm. We have collected fleece samples to be tested, vaccinated ewes and trimmed their hooves before lambing, started our yearly shearing, and now our lambs have all arrived. We look forward to lambing season with great excitement and a slight dread. We finally get to see all the wonderful colors and patterns of our new lambs, but we also worry about the many problems that can occur at lambing time.

Lambing season is usually a very joyous time, but it is usually also stressful and sometimes heart-wrenching. Sometimes, sheep need help birthing, lambs can be born with birth defects, ewes may develop mastitis and be unable to feed their lambs, some ewes may reject their lambs, lambs can inhale fluids from their amniotic sack and develop pneumonia, and the list goes on. So far this year, we have only had one vet trip for a lamb that developed a bacterial infection. We also had one ewe that is not producing enough milk to feed her twins, so we are having to supplement them. It is still early, but so far, it seems like a pretty good year for lambing.

Our lambing stats so far this year:

• lamb total: 23
• singles: 5
• sets of twins: 9
• ewe lambs: 13
• ram lambs: 10
• trips to vet: 1

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

We only shear our sheep once a year, so we look forward to getting fleeces sheared and seeing just how gorgeous the fleeces have turned out. Some Shetland sheep have double coats that are very long and generally not as soft as fine fleeced animals. We strive to produce fine, single coated fleeces, and often times the finer fleeces have a shorter staple length. This is also complicated by the fact that they tend to be more crimpy, so they are not very long when laid out flat, but they have a significant amount of stretch due to the crimp.

We consider lots of different information when trying to determine our best breeding matches. Of course, healthy animals with good mothering capability are at the top of our list of important qualities. It is also important to ensure that the sheep are not too closely related. We also want to ensure that we are producing fine fleeces, so any sheep with too coarse of a fleece will not make the cut for breeding. There are also other important qualities including the “Shetland tail” which is short and fluke shaped, general soundness of the body, and of course, horns are a consideration.

Shetland sheep can be horned or polled (polled means that they do not have horns). We do not have any horned ewes on our farm, but some Shetland ewes do have horns. We have mostly horned rams, but our sweet little Spot the ram lamb is polled. One of the major problems with horns is that some rams end up with horns that do not grow properly and that would grow into their face or head which can be deadly if there is no intervention. We generally choose to castrate rams that do not have good horns. An intact male sheep is a ram, and a castrated male sheep is known as a wether.

Of course, another breeding consideration is color. One of the things that drew me to Shetlands as a breed is their huge variation in natural colors! They can be black, white, brown, gray and just about anything in between. There is also a huge variety of markings and spots – one of the most common patterns that we have is called katmoget – this means that the belly and legs are darker than the rest of the body. Gulmoget is the opposite of katmoget, meaning that the body is darker than the belly.

For us, one of the most important wool qualities that we strive for is softness. Of course, you can tell a lot just by touching the fleece, but if you want a greater understanding of your wool and its qualities, you can send fiber samples in to a lab to have them tested. We send our samples to Texas A&M, and for $3 per sample, they send us a report with 15 different metrics evaluating each sample. We just got back the results from our fiber samples, and we are very pleased. The micron average of our entire flock is 24.3.

     

Shetland wool can be highly variable. There are many breeders that are working to produce fine fleeces while some others have other, different breeding priorities. Some Shetland can be very fine (microns in the teens) and some can be very coarse (well over 30 microns). Even a single animal can have a large variation within its own fleece. The softest wool on the sheep is on its neck and it gets coarser as you go back until you get to the coarsest part, known as the britch. The britch is basically the wool on the back end and the rear legs of the sheep. Another consideration is that as sheep get older it is not uncommon for their fleece to get coarser and shorter. 

In order to get the most reliable and comparable results of micron data, fleece samples to be sent for testing should be taken from the same place on each sheep. The middle of the side at the first rib is generally considered to be the best place. This area in the center of the sheep provides the most representative sample of the entire fleece.   

   

One of the major indicators of the softness of a fleece is the average micron count, so of course, this is the first metric on our report. For comparison – 1 millimeter is equal to 1,000 micrometers. Generally, a micron count under 30 is considered soft enough to wear next to the skin (personally, I prefer a fleece that is under 25 microns). The average micron count is a good starting point, but there are several other metrics that are important to consider as well.

The coefficient of variation is the variation of the fiber diameters in a sample. Not all the wool fibers on a sheep are going to be the same diameter. A large variation in fiber diameters can have great effects on the feel of the wool even if the average micron is relatively low.  

The comfort factor or CF is the percentage of fibers that are 30 microns or less. A CF of 95% or above is supposed to mean that the fiber is comfortable to wear against your skin. Any significant number of fibers greater than 30 microns makes wool prickly. This means that it would not be good to wear against your skin. Fiber over 30 microns would probably be good to be used for a rug or some sturdy outerwear though.

Spinning fineness or SF is a measure of the “spinning quality,” this takes a couple of factors into consideration and creates a number that is more representative of what the fiber feels like. Sometimes a fleece with a 27 average micron can feel more like it is 26 microns or vice versa.

Staple length or SL is expressed in mm. This is the length of the fiber. In general, 3” is a good length to be used for spinning and maybe down to 2.5” would not be a problem either. Fiber that is too short can be hard to spin or create a weak yarn, although if you are determined enough, you certainly can spin shorter fibers.   

     

7/17/2017

Lots has been happening here lately. We have sheared sheep and alpacas, sold our Shetland / Cormo cross sheep, obtained a new flock of purebred Shetland ewes, and been working on fencing designs to add about two acres of additional pasture for the ‘critters’.

Alpaca shearers are very busy people with lots of scheduling changes to deal with. It seems that somewhere in that hectic craziness, we were never put on the schedule to have our alpacas sheared. By the time the end of June and beginning of July rolled around here in NE Ohio, we were having some weather in the upper 80s, and the poor alpacas really needed to be freed of their fleeces.

After I was graciously given the opportunity to watch two different teams of shearers shear alpacas at two different farms, we decided to try to shear the alpacas on our own. I was able to find a used shearing hand-piece, and with a bit of innovation and improvisation, all 8 of our alpacas have now been sheared.

The girls suffered the worst haircuts as they were first:

And here are the boys:

In an effort to have a pure flock of Shetlands, the crossbred sheep that we had have now been relocated to a new home with a hand-spinner who I am sure will love them. The actual delivery of the sheep was quite an adventure that began with chasing sheep for an hour to get them all in the livestock trailer only to find out that some of the lights on the trailer were not working. After about an hour of laying in the gravel driveway, we managed to get all the lights working, and I was on my way. Unfortunately, their new pasture could not be reached with the truck so we had to push, pull and carry unwilling sheep to their new pasture in the 90-ish degree heat. Several sheep in, we decided to give them rides in the lawn trailer. We were ultimately able to get everyone settled in their new home.

A couple of weeks after this, I went to pick up my new flock of Shetland ewes. I ended up with 12 sheep, nine adults and three of this years lambs. Here are some of their pictures, they wouldn’t cooperate to get everyone in a single picture.

April 16, 2017

The beginning of Spring and the start of warmer weather signifies the opening of a very busy season. All of those outdoor projects that didn’t get completed before winter have now moved to the top of the to do list. Planting and gardening season is approaching quickly, mowing season has officially commenced and more project ideas keep adding up. It is also lambing season, but there will be no lambs here this year as we chose not to breed our ewes last fall.

We moved to our small farm last June, and have been working to adapt the place to our needs. We started many projects last fall and hope to work to complete those and many more over the next several months. We installed some pasture fence last fall, and now that the soybean crop has been removed, we are planning to install more fence in the coming months. We also rushed to complete some barn repairs so that the critters would have a nice place to stay out of the winter weather. We just picked up some posts to use for the new pasture fence yesterday.

There was no power or water in the barn when we bought the place, so we had to run 300 or so feet of trench to install water hydrants and run electric wire to the barn. Winter weather created many hurdles and a lot of waiting time to this project, but the water is now running. We expect the power to be hooked up next week. We also plan to have a driveway to the barn added this year that will allow us to get the truck and stock trailer out to the barn without getting stuck in the mud. So we are expecting to have plenty of mud this spring, but the future payoff should be well worth the short-term mess.

I am expecting to get some new alpacas and sheep this year, and I am looking forward to alpaca shearing in May. In the meantime, I found a local alpaca breeder who has graciously offered to help teach me more about maintaining my herd health and also had some fleece for sale. While I wait for my alpacas to be sheared, I now have 25 pounds of raw alpaca fleeces to play with. I also have a borrowed set of hand combs, and a home-made hackle that, along with a diz are used to create combed top.

I have been adding to my collection of fiber tools and now have a used Pat Greene Picker, and a used wide Ashford Drum Carder. These will allow me to process fiber more quickly and easily. A wool picker is used to open up the fibers and locks to make them easier to card, and the drum carder can be used to make fiber batts or roving.

I have been playing around with carding, combing and dyeing, and plan to open an etsy shop soon to begin offering hand dyed batts and braids for sale. I will also have the fleece that was sent to be processed into top available for sale after I receive it back from the fiber mill at the end of next month.

 

 

 

 

April 3, 2017

           

In Northeast Ohio, spring is generally eagerly awaited as a signal that the cold weather will be ending soon. The days grow steadily longer, and trees and plants will begin to sprout new growth.

Around here, March also means shearing time. The sheep are only shorn once a year, so this is an exciting time. Many farms have professional shearers come to the farm to shear their sheep. I decided to do my shearing this year because it was just not cost-effective to pay the shearers to come for only 7 sheep. So, with the help of Dave from Wee Middlebranch Farm, we managed to successfully shear 5 of these guys in time to get the fleeces sent to meet the processor at Black Swamp Spinners Guild Market Day and Fiber Fair.

Twenty-one pounds of fine white Cormo/Shetland cross fleece was sent to be processed into combed top. The fiber is expected to be returned Memorial Day Weekend.

I also ended up with 4.4 pounds of this lovely black Shetland/Cormo cross fleece that I am planning to blend with Alpaca, but the alpacas have not been shorn yet. Alpacas are generally not shorn until May in this area, so these guys should have another month or so to grow out their fleeces.

 

 

I was out in the yard today enjoying the beautiful spring weather and came across this little lady:    I don’t usually see many honey bees anymore. I remember when it seemed like you could barely take a step in the backyard without stepping on a bee. In an effort to help the honeybees and increase pollinators for my garden and fruit trees, I have ordered a package of bees. I am anticipating the arrival of a new Warre honey bee hive later this month, and the bees are supposed to arrive May 6th.

I am hoping to create a small orchard with peach, apple and cherry trees, blueberry and raspberry bushes, grapes and anything else I can find. I started planting some trees last fall, but a hungry rabbit decided that they were pretty tasty. I only have one surviving tree, it is a Belle of Georgia Peach, and it appears to be very happy and is budding up nicely. I am planning to be more proactive and protect everything I plant this year with wire so that the rabbit doesn’t eat it.

 

 

 

 

 

Eclectic Acres is a small farm in Northeast Ohio that was established in 2016. We raise Shetland and Shetland cross sheep and Alpacas for fiber. We also have a variety of other eclectic interests and hobbies including hand-spinning, gardening and honey bees. The farm is still growing and we plan to offer sheep, alpacas, fleeces, roving and hand-spun yarn for sale as it becomes available.