Stylish

On a sheepie fashion show.

The irony of sheep wearing polyester...

The Indiana State Fair Shetland Show is next week, and we’ve been preparing the show sheep for their big debut. This week, they’ll get their baths, and they need a way to stay clean. En route to the State Fair, they can get messy.

One way to keep their wool clean while they're in the trailer is to use sheep blankets. These blankets can be made of canvas or polyester and are sometimes found at farm stores.

However, Shetland-sized blankets can be difficult to find. Custom (read: pricey) sheep blankets exist, but we recently learned of another trick to keep wool clean: old t-shirts.

Friday, Jeff went to Goodwill and spent an absurd amount of time perusing the t-shirt selections, picking out colors the sheep can be proud of. It was fun (read: insane) seeing all the colors he came up with and hearing how important it is to have the right color on the right sheep.

Saturday, we fitted each sheep to a shirt. They actually didn't seem to mind.

(Side note: sheep blankets is a funny term since the sheep already wear their own wool blankets.)

Thanks for Reading!

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This Week on the Farm

We're finalizing our research project report on grazing Shropshire sheep in Christmas trees for weed control. The results have been really cool, as we found the sheep will eat right up around the trees without disturbing them.

This newly planted Turkish fir already has nice growth on it (the light green needles). The sheep have eaten down the grass around it.

This grazing saves us time and cost for mowing, as well as feed costs for the sheep.

After a really good Saturday of working on the farm, the last activity of the day was to take Mia for her pup cup.

Slurp, slurp, slurp!

Farm Shop

We have lambs available for sale, including Hob, our ram lamb going to the State Fair. Reply to this email or reach out via Facebook or Instagram for more information!

Hob during last night’s training session. He is available for your flock!