This came acutely into focus yesterday when I had an unexpected visitor, a farmer who asked why I had stopped my Farm Diaries. He had really … Continue reading →]]>

Zwartbles Ewe with Her Four Lambs

I have been absent from my written and photographic prose.

Zwartbles Hoggets in Early April When Grass Was Scarce.

This came acutely into focus yesterday when I had an unexpected visitor, a farmer who asked why I had stopped my Farm Diaries. He had really enjoyed reading them and seeing the photographs about farm life, even when he was doing the exact same things on his farm only a few miles away with his sheep. (A different breed of sheep.)

Zwartbles Lambs Warming Themselves on a Bitter March Night

So I am breaking the ice and getting back into posting Farm Diaries and will continue the series on the Zwartbles wool process at the Cushendale Woollen Mills.

Sorting out the Zwartbles Yarn Thread by Thread for the Warp of the Travel Rugs at Cushendale Woollen Mills

I shall once more be collecting pure Zwartbles wool from this years harvest. So I hope all of the Irish Zwartbles breeders are keeping their wool for me and when your shearing it you will be keeping it as clean as possible!!

Shearing Day May 2013

We will have our first Zwartbles wool products for sale very soon. There will be a very limited amount of beautiful Zwartbles yarn for knitting or crocheting, Travel Rugs and large Queen Size blankest.

Zwartbles Ireland Travel Rug; 100% Irish Wool

Please mark your diary for Saturday 15th December 2012 at The Bridge House Hotel, Tullamore  at 7pm for the ZSA Southern Ireland Zwartbles Sheep Association … Continue reading →]]> ZSA Southern Ireland Zwartbles Sheep Association AGM

Zwartbles 2012 Shearling

ZSA Southern Ireland AGM

Please mark your diary for Saturday 15th December 2012 at The Bridge House Hotel, Tullamore  at 7pm for the ZSA Southern Ireland Zwartbles Sheep Association AGM.

Please support our local group and we welcome new members and fresh ideas.

I look forward to seeing you there.

Zwartbles Ewe Lamb 2012

Judy Maxwell has written a wonderful news letter with photos of their travels around Ireland visiting all the Zwartbles flocks that entered into the 2012 Zwartbles flock competition.

 Flock Comp … Continue reading →]]> All Ireland Flock Competition 2012

Noleen & Colin Henry Judging My Flock for the 2012 Flock competition

Judy Maxwell has written a wonderful news letter with photos of their travels around Ireland visiting all the Zwartbles flocks that entered into the 2012 Zwartbles flock competition.

 Flock Comp 19 Nov 2012

A Parade of Zwartbles in front of the Judge Noleen Henry

Arriving on a sunny day with the last of the wool from this years Irish harvest of Zwartbles Wool. First the wool must … Continue reading →]]>

Arriving on a sunny day with the last of the wool from this years Irish harvest of Zwartbles Wool. First the wool must be weighed, so that I know what each Zwartbles Breeder has produced.

Philip Cushen Weighting A Bag of Wool

 The wool is then carried in it’s bags to the cleaning room. Here the wool is sorted and put into huge containers where is will be cleaned of all it’s remaining field dirt and fecal matter.

Sorting Wool Dirty on Left Clean on Right

When emptying the bags we have to hand pick out straw, baling twine, brambles, hay and big dags of fecal matter. This is hard slow work which is why we ask breeders to shear on a clean board, roll on a clean surface and bag into a clean bag. Next year we will be more strict about clean wool and rejecting any with too much dirt in it. I would really like the Zwartbles breeders to take pride in their wool and not treat it like dirty laundry.

Zwartbles Wool Stuffed into Cleaning Container

Once the container is full and stuffed to the brim with dry wool the top presses the content down to where the wonderful pure waters of the river Duiske comes in.

River Duiske Water is Pumped In From the Bottom

Once the container has been filled with water a mild wetting-out agent is added to help wet down the wool which cleans off all remaining field dirt.

Pouring the Liquid Mix to Help Wet Down the Wool

 The water must get to the correct temperature so a thermometer is held over the churning water wool mixture to test for correct heat. The machine wets down the wool for about an hour.

Wetted Down Wool

 Once the wool has been wetted down it has to be spun dry.

Water Drains off Wool

Firstly, water is drained out as much as possible before being moved to the spin-dryer.

Wet Wool Lifted out of Machine

 The wet wool is lifted up and wheeled across on an overhead beam trolley dripping on slatted floor rolls.

Dripping Wool as it Crosses to Spin-Dryer

Cleaned Wool Rolls Across to Spin-Dryer

When the wool reaches the spin-dryer it must be tipped by hand.

Wet Wool Loaded into Drier

A Steamy Job

The wool is very heavy when wet so only half can be put into the spin-drier.

Half of Wool Batch Loaded into Spin-Drier

 The wool must be tucked in and pulled so that there is a balanced weight in the spin-drier.

Wool Load Must be Evenly Balanced

Tucking in the Wool to Balance the Drier

Lowering Spin-Drier Lid

The roar and rumble of the spin-drier is like a powerful jet engine starting up. It is heavily bolted to the floor as it’s force is something to be reckoned with. Once the wool has been spun partially dry the first load is taken out, again by hand, and put into a bucket trolly.

Unloading Partially Dried Wool

Then the second half of wet wool is brought over and loaded into spin-drier.

Second Half of Wet Wool

Once the wetting container is empty of wet wool it gets reloaded with the just partially dried wool. So all the wool goes through this process once again to make sure all field dirt has been removed.

Loading Wool Back into Wetting Out Container

Once the wool has been through this process twice it is then taken to a big drying cupboard where it is left to dry in warmed air for two days. It is most important that the wool is allowed to dry slowly, as this preserves the quality of the wool fiber. In this photo the Zwartbles wool is sharing the drying space with Hanks of wonderful dyed blue Mohair yarn.

Zwartbles Wool in Drying Cupboard

Zwartbles made it into The Irish Farmers Journal. A very nice piece about Jimmy O’Keeffee and his Zwartbles sheep.

Dear Zwartbles member,
The Zwartbles pedigree sale at Hilltown on Friday 5 October will NOT be an export sale as we had previously hoped.  DARD has refused to issue an Export Licence to the mart because not … Continue reading →]]>

Zwartbles in late Summer

Dear Zwartbles member,
The Zwartbles pedigree sale at Hilltown on Friday 5 October will NOT be an export sale as we had previously hoped.  DARD has refused to issue an Export Licence to the mart because not all of the sheep entered will be from scrapie monitored flocks.  However, we will still advertise the sale to prospective Southern Irish buyers and inform them that sheep purchased from scrapie monitored flocks, will after the expiry of 30 days (60 days for rams) be delivered free of charge.

Sale entry forms can be obtained by contacting Judy on judy@spring2.fsbusiness.co.uk  or by texting 07885065531.  Entries close on Saturday 8 September.

Entry forms for the Zwartbles flock competition can also be obtained by contacting Judy. This years flock competition will be judged during the first two weeks of October by last years winner, Noleen Henry.
Entries close on Saturday 15 September.

Best regards,
Cyril Cromie

For those of you in Southern Ireland there will be a registered pure breed Zwartbles sale at the Blessington Mart on Saturday the 29th of September. If your interested in selling sheep call Doyle’s Auctioneers 01 490 3201 for entry forms which need to be in by Wednesday September 12th.

Ewe lamb Little Wren

This ewe is owned by the Lyons family Kilconnell Co.Galway.

Picture left to right Oisin, Ciaran, Cian, Francis … Continue reading →]]>

All Ireland Zwartbles Champion 2011

Zwartble shearling ewe the All Ireland Champion 2012 at Clonmel show on Sunday 1st July 2012.

This ewe is owned by the Lyons family Kilconnell Co.Galway.

Picture left to right Oisin, Ciaran, Cian, Francis and Colm

*

 Rachael Megarrill’s Castlewellan Show Zwartbles champion with Judge Anagharid Francis Castlewellan show 2012.

 All the while the sheep is moved, rolled, held, and if done correctly relaxes into the system as its … Continue reading →]]> When shearing a sheep there is a system; one shears up one side then down the other.

A Ewe Nearly Shorn

 All the while the sheep is moved, rolled, held, and if done correctly relaxes into the system as its fleeces comes off in one big piece.

First off comes the belly wool

The belly wool is discarded as it has lots of field dirt and is made up of quite short fibers so not good for spinning.

Next comes the inside of the back legs, which is also discarded as this area has lots of mucky bits. I Dag my sheep before lambing so this area tends to be cleaner then those who don’t dag.

(Dagging is shearing or clipping off the wool that is around the tail end and can be full of fecal matter).

After the dirty wool has been shorn and discarded the back leg is next. Depending on the shearer they might go for the right or left back leg. Andrew goes for the left one.

With Zwartbles and their long tails this is also when their tails are shorn.

Once the leg is cleared, the next step is shearing up the chest and neck under the chin of the sheep following through behind the ear and around to the middle top of the head.

Once the left side of the neck is cleared the sheep is laid down so around her elbow and side belly can be shorn

Then the long strokes from rear end to head are done.

 The last long stroke is up the spine of the sheep. Once the left side back strokes are finished Andrew works his way down the right side of the ewe’s neck and on down to the right shoulder, slowly rolling the sheep as he goes.

The ewe is being rolled sightly all the while as he shears down to her shoulder

Once again the Ewe is rolled to shear on down her right side belly down the loin area and over her rump

Shearing the Loin Area

 When a shorn sheep is released right after shearing she staggers about like a drunk for a few moments getting used to the sudden loss of weight. The fleece can weigh as much as 11 pounds.

In these Modern times there is no need to roll a fleece up, as most people just toss the fleece into a bag but if you only have a few and want to sell them as a raw whole fleece; here is how you roll a fleece.

You first make sure the area is clean, then toss out the whole fleece like a blanket shorn side down. Making sure it is flat and spread in the shape of its shorn self. Then you fold over each of the long sides from the hind leg to the front leg on each side like you would the sleeves of a shirt, meeting them in the middle or spine area of the fleece.

Once both long sides are folded into the middle of the fleece you start to roll it up tightly from the tail end, rolling towards the neck end of the fleece.

When you get to the neck end of the fleece if you step onto the upper shoulder area twist and pull & twist and pull the neck fleece out your making a kind of fleece rope

When you get it to a certain length you might want to stand up using both feet to keep pulling and twisting your neck fleece rope

When your neck fleece rope is long enough, you tighten your rolled fleece and roll the neck rope around the fleece roll as tight as you can and tie it into its self by tucking it under. This rolled raw fleece weighed in at 9 pounds.