Sheep Industry News January 2025

Colored Sheep Congress Offers Unique Insight

LAUREL STONE Apple Creek Merinos

I recently had the pleasure of attending the 10th World Congress on Colored Sheep, held in Christchurch, New Zealand. The congress was centered around presenta tions by attendees, from industry and academia to personal projects that involve colored sheep and wool. We were also treated to a day at the Christchurch Agricultural and Pastoral show as well as a fashion show of wool clothing and wearable art, which mainly showcased natural colored wool, of course. The congress was directly followed by a week-long bus tour of the south island that granted us lovely scenery and included visits to sheep farms, fiber mills and sightseeing lo cations, and concluded with a personal tour of the Ashford fiber equipment factory – if you are in fiber arts, yes that Ashford – by Richard and Elizabeth Ashford themselves. The Christchurch show boasted about 75 natural colored sheep. It was surprising how different their class divisions are from what we are used to in the United States. There are only two age groups – either under or over 18 months old. For the over 18 months age group, sheep may either be shown woolly – approximately 12 months’ wool growth – or shorn – approximately six months’ wool growth. Either way, the judge gets to see and judges heavily on the wool. Ewes being shown in the 18 months or older class are expected to bring their lamb(s) alongside and they are judged as a set with the quality of the lambs making up a large part of the ewe’s placing. There is no maximum age for an animal to qualify for the show. But possibly the most eye-opening part of the show was that all sheep in a given class are first let loose in the ring to move freely amongst themselves for several minutes as the judge evaluates their movement uninhibited by a handler. Yes, there was as much chaos as you are imagining for the ewes with lambs class. More sheep show surprises for me were that the sheep may not be coated leading up to or during the show, no fitting was allowed, and the handler in the ring may not touch the legs or feet to influence how the sheep stands. Despite my obvious naivety of their show eti quette, Will Gibson of Bluestone Stud graciously let me help

show a couple of his Merinos, which was a real highlight of the trip for me. Along with the sheep show, the Christchurch A&P show also holds a fleece competition. About 100 white fleeces and 35 natural-colored fleeces were on display. All fleeces entered get graded based on a very specific rubric, and are tested for yield and fiber diameter. Merino fleeces dominat ed the entries by number, but a black Polwarth fleece took the natural-colored top honors, and a white Polwarth won the supreme fleece in the white wool show. We got to visit both farms that produced these fleeces on our bus tour just a few days later. Our first stop on the tour was Greenacres Fiber Process ing, owned and run by Leo and Karen Ponsonby. They run a flock of natural-colored Romney, Corriedale, Merino and Polwarth sheep. Leo processes wool in small batches from his own flock as well as for nearby producers. His willingness and ability to handle small batches addresses a big pain-point for many of the flock owners that we spoke with on the trip. They might like to get their wool pro

Richard & Elizabeth Ashford with natural-colored New Zealand wool in their Ashburton warehouse.

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