Our Ram lamb was taken by surprise by the hot weather recently and was obviously overheating, so we did a quick clipping. We still need to get his brisket belly, but he should be much more comfortable for now.
Yeah, you should really invest in a pair of clippers beings you're in the sheep business now. He probably wasn't overheating as badly as you think, but if you do it again you should just clip the brisket and belly. That would be the most cooling for him. That wool is of lesser quality anyway, and you wouldn't have ruined the whole fleece. That breed of sheep's wool actually has some value, no point in wasting it.
Were going to get his underside tomorrow. The wife will be utilizing the wool we clipped today for needle felting. As you said, Icelandic fleece is fairly desirable. We'll definitely be processing it into wool/yarn in the future. In fact, one of our Ewe lambs won a Delaware state championship for her fleece last year. Icelandics actually need to be sheared twice/year in spring and fall. In the spring, they "break" their undercoat. Generally, spring fleeces are less valuable than fall fleeces, and are used for rugs and felting.
