[Jacob-list] sheep coats

[Betty Berlenbach]

I've never found the need for sheep coats.  The fleeces seem to stay very clean simply by feeding them on the ground all winter, in piles five feet apart, as many piles as there are sheep.  And to give them total choice about whether they want to be in or out.  The only hay that ever gets in their fleeces happens if rain is predicted within three days of shearing, and hence, I shut them in for that three days.  The shed isn't big enough for 25 piles, 5 feet apart!  So, then, they end up eating over each other occasionally.  But that is pretty much surface hay and is easily picked off by the skirting team at shearing.  The trick, I've found, is to skirt immediately and remove any obvious haybits then, so they don't get rolled up in the fleece, and able to work their way deeply into the fleece.  I consider a fleece dirty if I find more than 10 or so bits of hay in it, and don't put that fleece up for sale.
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