2010: Farmer Josh Changes Coats on Sheep

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By Josh Baynes

Story Created: Jul 7, 2010 at 8:14 PM CDT

Story Updated: Jul 7, 2010 at 8:19 PM CDT

The next stop on my tour of eastern Iowa farming jobs or tasks landed me at Peeper Hollow Farms just to the east of Marion. Dee Heinrich, an engineer turned farmer, was my guide with the task of changing coats on sheep.

What is changing coats? Well, Dee sells high-quality wool fiber to hand spinners and by keeping a coat on a sheep, the wool stays clean and does not get damaged by the sun. You have to change the coats every 2-3 weeks as the sheep and their wool grows.

After a quick lesson, Dee showed me how to change the coats. It is really a two-person job. One person has to hold the sheep's head while the other takes the coat off and puts on another. If you don't hold the sheep's head, it will get away from you.

I asked Dee if the coats made the sheep hot in the summer. The engineer in her decided to conduct a study and she found that the white sheep did not experience much of a temperature change with the coats on, which are white by the way, and the dark-colored sheep were actually cooler than not having a coat on. The white of the coat reflects sunlight, keeping the sheep cooler.

After changing coats of about 20 sheep, we let them back into the field. The sheep are only sheared once per year for their wool. She said one group gets sheared in October and the other in January. Total, Dee has about 50 to 100 sheep, depending on the time of year.

For a link to Peeper Hollow Farms, click here.

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