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Black and Coloured Sheep
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Spinning true yarns on coloured sheep
Friday, 14 August 2009
By Crispin Caldicott
One of the most familiar items in large tracts of the NZ country is that of flocks of sheep. Standing out, white against the background, sheep have been domesticated so long it is hard to imagine their wild, coloured forebears.
Logic would suggest an animal as obvious as a white sheep would not have lasted the course in terms of evolution. Just like rare albinos of any species, in the wild they would have been picked off very quickly, and not got to pass on their genes.
Coloured sheep are the throw-back in evolutionary terms. Originally all sheep were various shades of drab to black – they were bred over millennia to an overall white so their fleece would dye uniformly. Today there is a growing cottage industry of spinners and weavers breathing new life into coloured sheep. Up to forty years ago, coloured sheep were despised by the wool industry in NZ and, just like natural selection, they were ruthlessly culled.
The definition of a coloured sheep is any sheep that is not white. It can be wholly or partly coloured, in hues ranging from dark brown to cream; black to silver grey.
Helen Kinsella has spent all her life around sheep. “I grew up on a farm in Southland and from the age of three I loved sheep,” she told Rural Living. “My Mum said that from the time I could walk I would get my Dad’s rams into the yard, and try and mother the pet lambs on them. My first pet lamb was one of triplets, and as children we looked after a small flock, the fleeces of which provided money for Christmas presents! The one thing we never saw though, was a coloured sheep as the industry got rid of them. It was 1984 before I bred my first black sheep.”
Today Helen is the branch secretary of the Auckland/Northland branch of the Black and Coloured Sheep Breeders Association of New Zealand and is at the forefront of the impetus to put these animals firmly back in the rural economy. Wool, and the ease with which it can be used productively by one person is the engine behind this revival.
“Spinning is making a resurgence, and there are a lot of younger people getting involved. I’ve no idea what the attraction is save that people are obviously enjoying dealing with a natural product. We have a very active local spinning group and I maintain we don’t teach people anything, we just take them under our wings!
“Heaps of the group are well into their eighties too! I guess it is very therapeutic for all ages, because particularly when you are spinning you are doing up to three things at once – using your feet and hands and thinking about what you are doing.
“Whereas a good spinning wheel would cost up to around $600, you can easily pick one up for only $50 in a second hand shop.”
Just as the industry culled the coloured sheep in former times, Helen has no compunction about popping the weaklings into the freezer. “Because of our climate we get dreadful fly strike up here. I’ve seen them shorn only three weeks previously and they’ve been hit – my view is you have to use some chemical to protect them from those blighters. If they have what I call a weak back I get rid of them.
“This is where the back is so broad it causes a little hollow in the shoulder. It provides ideal conditions for fly strike, because the wool in the hollow gets damp, sweaty and warm – it is much easier to get rid of the sheep! I certainly know of people who have had some success using garlic or cider vinegar as a fly deterrent. In fact one of my friends found her sheep were choosing the water with vinegar in it over the fresh water she put out. If nothing else it must help their digestion!”
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