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Autumn Hills Woollens & Sheep Co.
    Merino, Bluefaced Leicester &
      Romney/BFL/Merino Cross
          Wool Fleeces for Sale

Beginning in Autumn 2009 Grass Fed
      Market Lambs also for Sale
       Curtis, Washington 98538

email: autumnhillswoollens@live.com

The two top photos were taken in Smith Valley, Nevada. In May of 2007 we helped move 1,500 head of Ted Borda's Merino sheep from the Pine Nut Mountains to grazing further to the south.

We sell Merino and Merino/Rambouillet fine to super-fine wool fleeces & Romney and Romney/Merino Cross fleeces. This new cross program is producing a longer stapled wool in the sub-30 micron range (22.7-28.6 m) with variations in color. We are always working on & improving our sucessful Merino breeding program. We also just purchased (June 2007) our first Bluefaced Leicester Ram and Ewe. Their fine and lustrous wool should add more dimension to our variety of quality fleeces.

At Autumn Hills Woollens & Sheep Co., our breeding program began in 1994 with the purchase of 16 rambouillet ewes and one ram from Ray & Pete Borda of Dayton, Nevada. A couple of weeks later, 8 more Rambouillet ewes were purchased from UNR's facility at the Rafter 7 Ranch. Later, we used a half Merino-half Rambouillet ram and bred him to our ewes. Two years later at the Ram Sale at the Rafter 7 Ranch, we purchased a 7/8 Merino Ram. In September of 2003, we purchased our first purebred Merino ram from the Mendenhall Wool Ranch and a pure Merino ewe from the UNR ram sale. Currently our mature cross ewes weigh approximately 180 pounds and produce excellent wool. We will continue to select for large bodied sheep with a fleece superior for spinning.

We test all our flock's fiber and our Merino ewes range from 17.7 microns to 22.8 microns diameter. The greasy fleece weights range from 13 to 18 pounds. Our Bluefaced Leicester fleeces test around 26 microns. It is these fleeces that we have each Spring for sale.

In July of 2008 we moved from western Nevada where the top two photos of large numbers of sheep were taken to wet and lush western Washington State. Here our sheep and horses graze at their leisure on our 27 acres of pasture.

We are beginning to breed a low octane (get fat on only grass hay) cross breed of sheep. We will cross our Bluefaced Leicester ram to Border Leicester ewes. This will produce our "Mother Flock".

We will then breed these cross ewes with a Dorper ram. The Leicesters and Dorper breeds gain weight very fast just on pasture grass. The Dorper as the "terminal ram" will also pass on to his progeny from the Leicesters the ability to gain quickly from just grass hay plus his progeny are born small (easier lambing) and mature very quickly. These will be our market lambs.

A Brief History of Sheep

Along with the formation of Western Civilization in the eastern Mediterranean, came the early domestication of meat animals, primarily goats and sheep. Domestic sheep (Ovis aries) were domesticated (perhaps as early as 12,000 years ago) from the European wild sheep (mouflon). These earliest sheep were a hair type sheep that had a sub-coat of finer denser wool close to the skin. These sheep may have resembled the Barbados Sheep (from North Africa) in appearance and like them, may have shed their inner wool seasonally. Also believed to very closely related to the Mouflon are the Soay sheep which were brought to Soay Island (northwest of the northern tip of Scotland) thousands of years ago by Neolithic seafarers. There they have adapted to the local environment without the intervention by humans. They also shed their inner wool (sub-coat) and tend to scatter when alarmed rather than cluster as other more modern sheep do (http://www.soayfarms.com/history.html). It was this sub-coat of the first domesticated sheep that interested the early farmers due to its soft and finer characteristics (in addition to supplying meat). Over thousands of years of selection, this sub-coat came to dominate the type of wool in the finer wool breeds. The original hair was later termed primary follicles and the inner wool was termed secondary follicles. The secondary to primary follicle ratio for today's Merino is approximately 18:1 up to 60:1. Domestic sheep now encompass over 200 distinct breeds distributed throughout the world.

Another breed of sheep that has strong similarities to its early Mediterranean ancestors is the Orkney sheep named after the Orkney Islands from which they are found. Their origins are mostly unknown and at best speculative. These islands are situated off of the northern tip of Scotland. Here, these long wooled sheep graze primarily along the coast where their major diet consists of seaweed. As the first domesticated sheep developed a high tolerance to salt and an efficient system to function on a limited water supply, the Orkney sheep find it easy to adapt to their seaweed diet. For more information concerning the Orkney sheep, see http://www.caithness.org/history/articles/northronaldsaysheep2/.

Today's modern wool sheep breeds may be divided into four categories, long coarse wool (rugs), variable length softer and finer wool (garments), meat, and dual purpose. The long course wool is most often woven into products and the finer wool is spun into garments that can be worn next to the skin. The merino breed (focus of this website) of sheep first developed in Spain and spread into Europe (later to Russia & China), down to South Africa and around the horn to Australia and New Zealand. Strains of Merino were developed as a result of the spread into Europe. In 1786 a flock of 386 Merino ewes was imported by Louis XVI to France (www.sheepusa.org). This flock adapted to the local conditions and cultural needs and was soon renamed Rambouillet. A Rambouillet ram was a founding sire in the Peppin strain (the major strain) of Merino in Australia. In Saxony (NE Germany) a strain of Merino was developed that concentrated more on wool fiber fineness than on body size.

The Rambouillet became the dominant breed introduced in the U.S. in the early half of the 19th century. It became and remains the dominant sheep breed in the western half of the U.S. and has been bred as a dual-purpose animal (wool and meat). These sheep became very hardy and maintained their flocking characteristics that allowed them to be easily managed in large numbers. Today this strain of Merino may attain sizes 1/3 more massive than its Australian/New Zealand cousins.

In Australia and New Zealand the Merino was favored more for its wool qualities than for its meat production. The Saxon strain was imported to reduce the diameter of the wool fiber. Later, this strain was crossed with a Peppin and became the dominant new strain at the Merryville Stud in Australia. Since this Merryville strain was developed, it was later crossed back to the Peppin with the goal to combine the best of both fleece characteristics.

autumnhillswoollens@live.com

Second consecutive year of fertilizing the pasture with chicken manure.
No chemical pesticides or inorganic fertilizers used.

7/8 Merino, 1/8 Rambouillet ram lamb for sale. Born in April of 2008. Father is a UNR Rafter 7 Merino ram whose fleece won Supreme Grand Champion fleece at the SW Washington Fair this past August. The dam at maturity has a fleece that measures 18.8 microns and a staple length of 4.5 inches. A great ram to bring a great fleece to anyone's flock.

**See base of page for a Great Ram Lamb for Sale

Patricia & Winston (a.k.a. Winnie) dragging
the Nevada Horse Corral

Frank, our new Livestock Guardian Dog, 1/2 Great Pyrenees 1/2 Anatolian Shepherd.

Our first lambs of the 2009 season, Penny, Nichole and Dina,
three Bluefaced Leicester triplet ewelambs.