Baa Baa, Rhody Sheep

While some areas of Rhode Island were enjoying warm sunshine on Tuesday, a cool fog blanketed Matunuck when Bill Cournoyer arrived at to shear a flock of 24 adult Tunis, Shropshires, and South County Specials. 

“It’s a ritual of spring,” observed Roberta Mulholland Browning, as husband Bill gently coaxed the sheep into the shelter where they would remain penned for the afternoon awaiting Cournoyer’s tonsorial magic. (We invite you to enjoy the sheep-shearing video snippets accompanying this article.)

Shear Necessity

Cournoyer, who has himself raised sheep for more than 25 years, learned how to shear sheep out of necessity. “We moved into an old farmhouse and it had a pasture overgrown with weeds and briar,” he explained.

“We got some sheep as a land management tool,” Cournoyer laughed. An easygoing nature seemed to be the hallmark of the man who would turn the Brownings’ sheep with careful confidence, firming their skin with one hand while gliding the shears with his other hand along belly, limbs, back, and head.

The resulting soft mass of wool fleece, rich with lanolin and almost like a blanket in itself, was enough to fill a large, black plastic bag. Cournoyer patiently repeated the process two dozen times, treating each animal as if it were the day’s first.

No Top Knots Please

Sheep grow a thick coat of wool which keeps them warm during the winter months. But the coat that insulates them so well during the cold weather can cause them to suffer under the hot summer sun. Most sheep in RI are sheared once a year, in springtime.

Shearing is like clipping a poodle except the sheep shearer removes all of the wool right down to the skin. There’s nothing pouffy about a sheep when the shearing's done. If you don't believe it, check out the 'after' photo in the accompanying photo lineup. The picture gallery also features photos of sheep at URI's Peckham Farm provided by Evan Pagano, an amazingly talented freshman Animal Science major at the university.

A sheep’s coat grows back, reaching about an inch in length within a month of shearing. By winter, the sheep again has a fully grown protective cloak of wool.

On shearing day, explained Cournoyer, “They [the sheep] do need to be dry. You can’t store wet wool because it gets moldy quickly.” It also helps if the sheep are reasonably clean, he added, because dirt or grit will dull the blades of the electric shears.

Rhody Warm

Although sometimes affected by worldwide market fluctuations, wool is becoming a more valuable commodity, in part because of the growing recognition of wool's benefit as a natural fiber for garments and blankets.

Harkening back to colonial times, Cournoyer explained, some people still have spinning wheels. “There are spinning clubs in Connecticut,” he said of his home state. By contrast, he added, some people, mainly those who keep one or two sheep as backyard pets, toss the wool on the compost pile after the sheep are groomed.

Not so at the Rhode Island Sheep Cooperative. In a program started in 2006 to help sustain agriculture in Rhode Island, the Rhode Island Sheep Cooperative collects wool from member farms and processes the fleece to produce pure wool throws, blankets, and other items sold under the Rhody Warm name. Since 2006, according to the Rhode Island Sheep Cooperative, "over 140 producers have collected almost 10,000 pounds of raw wool and produced over 2000 blankets."

In 2007 Rhody Warm blankets received a "Best of Rhode Island" award from Rhode Island Monthly Magazine.

100% Rhode Island Wool Blankets

Turning raw wool into a Rhody Warm blanket is a multi-step process that involves several companies in three different states:

• Sheep are sheared in Rhode Island in the spring.
• Rhode Island Sheep Cooperative members meet in June to collect, skirt, and prepare fleece for shipping to Chargeurs Wool USA in Jamestown, South Carolina, where it is cleaned and scoured.
• Clean wool returns to S&D Spinnery in Milford, Massachusetts, for spinning.
• Spun yarn is shipped to Richmond Textiles in South Grafton, Massachusetts, for weaving.
• Woven wool returns home to Rhode Island for fulling, napping, cutting, and finishing at Riverpoint Lace Works in West Warwick.
• Rhody Warm blankets are ready for sale by December. (At press time, some blankets produced during the 2010 season were still available for purchase. Ordering information is provided at the end of this article.)

Rhode Island Sheep Cooperative - Since 1949

“Our membership totals approximately 65 families or farms from one end of the state to the other,” said Polly Hopkins, from Chepachet, RI, who is President of the Rhode Island Sheep Cooperative, an organization founded in southern Rhode Island in 1949.

“As well as running the Rhody Warm blanket project,” Hopkins explained, “the Cooperative supports youth sheep activities by sponsoring awards at the Rhode Island county level 4-H sheep shows, at the Washington County Fair sheep show, as well as the regional 4-H show held in September at the Eastern States Exposition in West Springfield, Massachusetts.

“The Cooperative is made up of a diversity of members: from some who raise show sheep that have won many top honors around the country, to the ‘back yard farmers’ who have a couple sheep for pets, to those who have a small specialized flock that produce wonderful wool to spin, to those with larger flocks who raise lambs for meat to sell privately and to restaurants,” she explained. “We all have the same thing in common: to promote lamb and wool in this state,” she added.

The Rhode Island Sheep Cooperative’s recent newsletter in PDF format accompanies this article. It is chock full of information and a recommended read for anyone interested in local agriculture.

Got Sheep?

“Sheep are remarkable animals, each with its own personality,” explained Dr. Fritz Vohr, a former sheep farmer from Charlestown, RI. “We raised Merinos (bigger and sometimes bossy), (smaller, easier to handle), and the Border Leicesters,” he shared.

“Being a shepherd is very grounding,” Dr. Vohr continued. “Sheep get injured, sometimes sick, targeted by predators; lambing can be chaotic; but the whole thing and the people involved are wonderful. Waking up in the morning to see your flock grazing - hopefully not loose in the garden - is a real joy.

“If you are looking for real exercise that comes with hand lotion, get some sheep!” Dr. Vohr advised.

To order a Rhody Warm blanket or other products made from 100% Rhode Island wool, contact the Rhode Island Sheep Cooperative at 401-578-2012 or visit the organization’s web site. You can also purchase items locally from Barbara Donnelly, Red Horse Farm, Exeter, RI.

Visit  or contact Browning Homestead by email.

Evan Pagano, a University of Rhode Island freshman Animal Science major, generously shared some of his photos of Peckham Farm sheep for this article. Click here to view Evan Pagano's fabulous nature photography or email Pagano to learn more about his work.

For information about URI's agricultural programs at Peckham Farm, contact Farm Manager Katie Horton by email.

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