Leicester Longwool Sheep
Leicester (pronounced lester) Longwool (ELL) Sheep (also known as Leicester Longwools) . If you are just getting into rare breed animals, please see the American Livestock Breed Conservancy endangered page and see what you might be willing and able to help out. English Leicester Sheep are an urgently endangered breed--less than 2,000 worldwide are registered annually, less than 200 registered in the United States each year. George Washington was among the many progressive agriculturists that imported and raised them. They were used so much for cross-breeding the breed was lost in the United States. In 1990 Colonial Williamsburg imported 18 purebred Leicester Longwools from Tasmania. With careful breeding and use of satellite flocks and later, artificial insemination, the breed has grown in the United States. Leicester Longwools are generally shorn twice a year, with the fall shearing the more valuable one. If left on for 12 months, the fleece can exceed 14 inches in staple and 18 pounds in weight. This is way too long for most processors, so we will shear them twice a year. The lamb clip is the most valuable. The locks are very beautiful and sought by handspinners as well as doll makers for it's curly, soft, high-gloss qualities. This is one of the easiest to felt fleeces, so felters must try this fleece. Not only does it felt easily, but it is maybe the most lustrous of all sheep fleeces in the finished product. |
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Here are just a few photos of our flock. |
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