Day 6: Friesz Livestock by: Sarah

 Today's Sponsor:

Mr. and Mrs. Hinton

 

To start our day we went to Friesz Family Farm which predominantly breeds dual purpose sheep breeds for show, wool, and meat. The sheep breeds they have included Corriedale, Lincoln and Valais Blacknose. 

Valais Blacknose sheep are commonly referred to as the world's cutest sheep breed, they originate from Switzerland making it difficult to have a pure bred Valais Blacknose sheep. however they now allow transportation of embryos into the US, allowing the possibility for more pure bloodlines to breed registered stock.

Each breed has differences in its wool for example: Corriedale have medium fiber type wool and the Valais Blacknose sheep has a coarse and more dense wool. They use can use the wool for a number of things like yarn, felting, coasters, tables runners, and glasses holders. 

Probably one of the coolest things was that they use wool for wool pellets. This helps give purpose to wool unfit for felting or excess wool. Wool pellets are used in soil for plants because they retain moisture and contain many micro nutrients, this is a relatively new product but has a promising future in the plant industry.

 

 

Frieze sells their products at local fairs or markets as well as sells their lamb meet in local stores. 

Overall it was a very enjoyable experience the people and animals we met were kind and welcoming and we got to learn a lot more about the sheep industry.

Looking at different types of wool from different sheep breeds and learning what they can be used for.

  

Some examples of the breeds on the Friesz Family Farm.