Interesting Facts About Sheep & Wool

• In 2009, an 8-month-old Scottish ram called Deveronvale Perfection sold for £231,000 at the Scottish National Texel Sale at Lankark Market! The buyer, Jimmy Douglas, purchased the ram for breeding, making it the most expensive sheep in the world to date.

• In May 2010, Hilton Barrett sheared a single mature sheep at an amazing 39.31 seconds! He now holds the Guinness World Record for the fastest time!

• Sheep have excellent peripheral vision. Their rectangular pupils allow them to see almost 360 degrees! 

• Not only can sheep recognize up to 50 other sheep faces and remember them for 2 years, but they can also recognize human faces.

• Over 900 breeds of sheep exist in the world, one of the most popular is the Merino. 

• Sheep wool has a natural UV protection built in, this helps to keep sheep and lambs from getting sunburnt.

• According to EU rules, a product may be labelled 100% wool or pure wool as long as it contains no more than 5% inadvertent impurities.

• Wool is wrinkle resistant - that's one less thing to add to the ironing pile!

• The fleece of sheep has been used to make human clothing since the Stone Age.

• Wool is fire-resistant - it has a high natural ignition point of about 1,382 degrees Fahrenheit! 

• In 2016-2017, the top wool producers were Australia, China, the United States, and New Zealand. The amount of wool produced in Australia in this timeframe was worth approximately $3 billion!

• Wool is composed of same protein that makes up the outer protective layer of your skin.

• Wool fibres are durable and flexible. Wool fibre can withstand being bent 20,000 times without breaking.Whereas, cotton breaks after 3,000 bends and silk after 2,000 bends.

• Worsted is a high-quality type of wool yarn, the fabric made from this yarn, and a yarn weight category. The name derives from a village called Worstead in Norfolk, England.

• The industry term for the itchiness of a particular wool is called the "Prickle Factor"!

Did you know?

• At the Woolmill, we roughly process the fleece of 50 sheep a week!

• In order to weave a run of blankets, we need to turn that raw wool into roughly 2000 individual threads, just to make up our warp (the threads that run lengthways through our blanket)!